Ensure youth-led inclusive development

Bangladesh must shift from an economy and polity controlled by vested interest groups to a system that ensures active participation of the youth and equal access to opportunities and state benefits for all citizens, speakers said at a discussion yesterday.

Government advisers, political leaders, diplomats, teachers, and economists, who attended the discussion, also emphasised inclusive growth, good governance, and amplification of marginalised voices to navigate the current political and developmental challenges.

In his keynote, Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed said a concentration of economic and political power in the hands of a few oligarchs led to persistent problems in the financial sector.

"The visible development hasn't reached the poor and marginalised," he noted.

The discussion, titled "Empowering Bangladesh: Pathways to Leadership, Unity, and Growth," was organised by the Bangladesh Empowered Foundation and North South University's Department of History and Philosophy.

Salehuddin said the past 15 years saw widespread irregularities, corruption, and money laundering, driven by vested business interests.

"The banking sector is in a mess. Bank chairmen and directors looted vast sums, while similar issues plagued the capital market, non-bank institutions, and trade," he said.

The interim government, he added, inherited serious challenges on political, economic, administrative, and law-and-order fronts. To stabilise the financial sector, reforms have begun in banking, capital markets, the NBR, taxation, and non-bank development institutes.

With runaway inflation for three years, he said, restoring purchasing power through monetary policy is a priority.

He also emphasised the need to diversify exports beyond garments to sectors like leather, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and electronics. "We are working to attract foreign investment, but unless governance improves and corruption is checked, those efforts won't succeed," he cautioned.

He described the current administration as transitional and said foundational reforms will allow future governments to build further. "We hope to leave behind positive changes that the next elected government may continue—or the people will demand it," he said.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir expressed optimism that the nation is headed toward positive change, saying interim government chief Prof Muhammad Yunus would succeed in resolving political and other challenges.

"We have problems, and these will be resolved. Much progress has already been made. Let us all help him [Yunus], help ourselves, and move forward," he said.

Fakhrul asserted that the people of Bangladesh—not India, the US, or China—will determine the country's future.

He credited the youth as the driving force behind the nation's democratic and rights-based movements, from the 1952 Language Movement to the July-August uprising of 2024.

He also emphasised that there is no alternative to democracy. "And democracy cannot be imposed; it must be practised. The spaces for this practice must remain open."

In the second session, Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of the Power and Participation Research Centre, said marginalised communities must be able to see themselves reflected in the exercise of power.

"Only then will grassroots people feel empowered," he noted, stressing the need for a balanced distribution of authority within the police and local administrations.

Political analyst Dr Dilara Chowdhury said there can be no real empowerment of women in the country without their participation in policymaking.

"Women in Bangladesh are treated as second-class citizens, which starts from home and continues to the society and the state," she said.

Without women empowerment, the dream of a discrimination-free Bangladesh would be illusive, she added.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser to the environment ministry, said the youth must be engaged more to build a new Bangladesh since they are not hesitant or cannot be restrained. "We need to understand the language and expectations of the new generation," she said.

Anisuzzaman Chowdhury, special assistant to the chief adviser; Jashim Uddin, foreign secretary; Abdul Hannan Chowdhury, NSU vice chancellor; Farah Kabir, ActionAid Bangladesh's country director; and Assaduzzaman Fuaad, the AB Party's general secretary, also spoke at the event.

Four students were awarded the Ambassador Serajul Islam Future Leaders Scholarship supported by a grant from the Dr Prabir and Mukul Roy Foundation. They are Fatema Tuj Johura and Arpita Paik from Dhaka University, and Shahnewaz Kabir and Samia Yesmin from NSU.