Bangladesh - Economic Progress

[mufi_02]

The rise and rise of Bangladesh
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Co...-of-Bangladesh

Bangladesh defies economic and political gravity. Since its 1971 war of independence with Pakistan, the country has been known for its tragedies: wrenching poverty, natural disasters and now one of the world's biggest refugee crises, after the influx of 750,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in neighboring Myanmar.

Yet, with remarkably little international attention, Bangladesh has also become one of the world's economic success stories. Aided by a fast-growing manufacturing sector -- its garment industry is second only to China's -- Bangladesh's economy has averaged above 6% annual growth for nearly a decade, reaching 7.86% in the year through June.

From mass starvation in 1974, the country has achieved near self-sufficiency in food production for its 166 million-plus population. Per capita income has risen nearly threefold since 2009, reaching $1,750 this year. And the number of people living in extreme poverty -- classified as under $1.25 per day -- has shrunk from about 19% of the population to less than 9% over the same period, according to the World Bank.

Bangladesh: A small tiger economy with big plans
https://www.dw.com/en/bangladesh-a-s...ans/a-46860951

Bangladesh has been making progress and the country is so successful in many areas that it is a "role model for South Asia." These are not the words of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, but the British business magazine Economist.

Bangladesh to become 24th largest economy by 2033
https://www.dhakatribune.com/busines...conomy-by-2033

Bangladesh will jump 19 notches and become the world’s 24th largest economy by 2033, from its current 43rd status in the World Economic League, forecast a UK-based global Economics and Business Research organization.

Meanwhile, while global economies are expected to slow down in 2019 --

WB jacks up GDP growth estimate
https://www.thedailystar.net/busines...timate-1685449

The World Bank has revised upwards Bangladesh's economic growth prospects for the current fiscal year to 7 percent thanks to a bustling economy.

The latest revision by the Washington-based lender is 30 basis points higher than its last projection -- which was made in June last year -- but lower than the government's expectation of a 7.8 percent growth.

Bangladesh's economy expanded by 7.9 percent last fiscal year thanks to strong private consumption and strong remittance inflows.

[mufi_02]

[al Furqaan]

Excellent stuff.

Climate change though will heavily impact BD In the coming decades.

Also our national cricketers should be paid more than Sri Lankan or PAK players.

[Roey Haque]

All that with corrupt politicians and no real leaders. Imagine if we had conscientious politicians and strong leaders to show us the way forward.

[Mas_UK25]

MashAllah!

Cholo Bangladesh Cholo Bohudhur.

Now am hoping this current gen and next gen will be more civilised, better common sense and more open minded.

[tonmoy.dhaka]

It is hard to keep track of the amount of major infrastructure projects that the Government is working on. Gone are the days when Mohakhali Flyover (barely 1 km) was the most important infastructure project of the year.

Here are some of the major projects where work already started

1/ Padma bridge (expected realistic completion time - mid 2020)
2/ Development work at Payra (Port and Major Power generation Hub) -
3/ Metro Rail Line 6
4/ Dhaka Chittagong double like Railway. Only Laksham to Akhaura (72 km remaining), expected completion 2021. Journey time reduced to 3 hours
5/ Nuclear Power Plant (Rooppur, Pabna) - 2023 completion
6/ Matarbari Deep sea port
7/ Purbachal Development
8/ Rampal Coal based Power plant (Not happy about it)
9/ Chittagong LNG Terminal Mahashkhali
10/ Karnaphuli Tunnel

Long live Bangladesh

[Mas_UK25]

^ many of the highways into 4 lanes.

[One World]

Meanwhile number of discrimination cases to opposite sex and kids has risen to an alarming level, total reported rape victims for last year is ~950 something which is >3 per day! One might scratch head infinitely to comprehend how a developing peace loving religious country like BD can have such a pacey rate of heinous social crime.

[mufi_02]

Originally Posted by One World
Meanwhile number of discrimination cases to opposite sex and kids has risen to an alarming level, total reported rape victims for last year is ~950 something which is >3 per day! One might scratch head infinitely to comprehend how a developing peace loving religious country like BD can have such a pacey rate of heinous social crime.

we are discussing economic progress and indicators here. but if you want to talk about social indicators, let's look at some numbers with neighboring countries and rest of the world as well.





now on sexual reports comparing with US --

Sexual Assault in the United States
One in five women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives (a)
In the U.S., one in three women and one in six men experienced some form of contact sexual violence in their lifetime

https://www.nsvrc.org/statistics

those are staggering numbers. 1 in 5 woman will be raped at some point and 1 in 3 woman has already experienced some form of sexual violence. So look right and left few times and you will find some woman in those horrible statistics.

On average, there are 321,500 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in the United States

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/vic...exual-violence

that is almost 900 rape and assaults per day!!
---

so discrimination and sexual violence is a global phenomenon. unfortunately, it is prevalent everywhere. I am scratching my head how a developed peace loving secular country like USA can have such high sexual violence. how can R Kelley be so culturally influential and prevalent in the business even after abusing underage girls for decades?

--

finally, obviously Bangladesh isn't a perfect example. It has a lot of areas to improve on. Woman/Children are still abused in high numbers. We will never be like Canada or Northern Europe. That is the reality.

But over the last 30 years the country has improved leaps and bounds in both economic and social indicators.

[tonmoy.dhaka]

Originally Posted by One World
Meanwhile number of discrimination cases to opposite sex and kids has risen to an alarming level, total reported rape victims for last year is ~950 something which is >3 per day! One might scratch head infinitely to comprehend how a developing peace loving religious country like BD can have such a pacey rate of heinous social crime.

The key word here is "Reported"... I would not be wrong to assume that most of the rape cases inside religious seminaries go unreported.

[mufi_02]

Originally Posted by tonmoy.dhaka
The key word here is "Reported"... I would not be wrong to assume that most of the rape cases inside religious seminaries go unreported.

I would hate it to veer the conversation into sexual assault, religion, and of course the only evil in the world that is Islam (AND I can say this coz my family is muslim) BUT only about a third of sexual crimes are reported in USA. About 36%.

FYI, my goal was to only discuss country's economic growth and have been following it closely since BD was mentioned as a success story in one my grad school classes few years ago.

[tonmoy.dhaka]

Agreed.
Does anyone know what is the timeline for the completion of the Padma bridge rail network. I think that work was delayed because of delay with the financing of the project.

Payra needs the Padma rail to fully realise its potential.

[tonmoy.dhaka]

Originally Posted by tonmoy.dhaka
It is hard to keep track of the amount of major infrastructure projects that the Government is working on. Gone are the days when Mohakhali Flyover (barely 1 km) was the most important infastructure project of the year.

Here are some of the major projects where work already started

1/ Padma bridge (expected realistic completion time - mid 2020)
2/ Development work at Payra (Port and Major Power generation Hub) -
3/ Metro Rail Line 6
4/ Dhaka Chittagong double like Railway. Only Laksham to Akhaura (72 km remaining), expected completion 2021. Journey time reduced to 3 hours
5/ Nuclear Power Plant (Rooppur, Pabna) - 2023 completion
6/ Matarbari Deep sea port
7/ Purbachal Development
8/ Rampal Coal based Power plant (Not happy about it)
9/ Chittagong LNG Terminal Mahashkhali
10/ Karnaphuli Tunnel

Long live Bangladesh

11/ Chittagong outer ring road

As MasUK25 indicated
Can someone list the highways that are being turned into 4 lanes at this time?

I know there is a plan to turn Dhaka Sylhet highway to 4 lanes but not sure if work started on the project.

[One World]

More ingredients to scratch your head.

https://www.prothomalo.com/banglades...A7%87%E0%A6%B6

PS: When you compare US with BD in terms of any index there is a noticeable gap in that analysis, US is the size of 70-80 BD or so while the population density is quite opposite.

[ToBeFair]

Originally Posted by One World
More ingredients to scratch your head.

https://www.prothomalo.com/banglades...A7%87%E0%A6%B6

PS: When you compare US with BD in terms of any index there is a noticeable gap in that analysis, US is the size of 70-80 BD or so while the population density is quite opposite.

More food for thought
https://www.prothomalo.com/banglades...��াদেশ

[One World]

Originally Posted by ToBeFair
More food for thought
https://www.prothomalo.com/banglades...��াদেশ

I looked into that one before the other one.
This one is horrific as you can tell which are the countries in the leading. The socio-political situation can be directly proportional to that parameter regardless of religion or ethnicity.

[ToBeFair]

উন্নয়ন যে দেশে অবশ্যই হয়েছে, তা কেউ ই অস্বীকার করতে পারবে না। তবে উন্নয়নের ব্যাপারে আমার কিছু প্রশ্ন রয়েছে, যেগুলো আগেই বলে রাখি, জামাইত্যা বিএনপি মনে হতে পারে। তার পরেও এই প্রশ্ন গুলো করলামঃ

১। উন্নয়নের মানে কি কেবল অবকাঠামোগত উন্নয়ন? তাও আবার হাতে গোনা কয়েকটি?

২। বাংলাদেশের অবকাঠামোগত উন্নয়ন (তা যে সরকারের আমলেই হয়েছে) আমার কাছে মনে হয় জোড়া তালির উন্নয়ন। সাউথ ইস্ট এশিয়া, চীন, বা মধ্যপ্রাচ্যের দেশগুলোর যেকোন অবকাঠামোগত প্রকল্পগুলো যখন শেষ হয়, অবকাঠামোগুলো হয় একদম ঝকঝকে তকতকে। একদম টিপ টপ যাকে বলে। বাংলাদেশের কোন কিছু আমি সেরকম পাই নি, তা সে বিমান বন্দর হোক, রাস্তা হোক, বা একটা নতুন বাস স্টেশন হোক। কোন জোড়া তালি বা খুঁত থাকেই। মানে কাজ চলে কোনরকম। একটা উন্নত দেশের স্টেডিয়ামের আশপাশ কেমন থাকে আর বাংলাদেশের মিরপুর বা বঙ্গবন্ধু স্টেডিয়ামের আশপাশ কেমন? আমরা কেন সাউথ ইস্ট এশিয়া, চীন, বা মধ্যপ্রাচ্যের দেশগুলোর মত কোয়ালিটি সম্পন্ন প্রজেক্ট করতে পারছি না, যদিও আমাদের খরচ বেশি? হতে পারে আমি পারফেকশনিস্ট।

৩। উন্নয়নের সুফল কার পকেটে যাচ্ছে? বাংলাদেশ কেন আজ অতি ধনী বা ধনী বৃদ্ধির কারখানায় পরিণত হয়েছে? আমলাতন্ত্র, সেনাবাহিনী, পুলিশ, এবং ব্যাংকার-ব্যবসায়ীদের জন্য অনেক নীতি প্রণয়ন হয়েছে, মাহনতি মানুষের জন্য কি হয়েছে? দেশে কেন এখনো মিনিমাম ওয়েজ নেই? বাংলাদেশের কৃষক কেন আজ লোকসান দিয়ে ফসল ফলায়? কেন এখনো লাখ লাখ অদক্ষ শ্রমিক এবং নারী বিদেশ যাচ্ছে? মুক্তিযুদ্ধের একটা চেতনা ছিল শোষণ বিহীন সমাজ গড়ে তোলা যেখানে প্রতিটি নাগরিকের জন্য নিজ স্বপ্ন বাস্তবায়নের সমান সুযোগ থাকবে।

৪। বাংলাদেশে আজ বেকারত্বের হার এত বেশি কেন? কেন আজ যুবকরা পড়াশোনার পর কাজ পাচ্ছে না? ভর্তির হার এবং পাসের হার অবশ্যই বেড়েছে, কিন্তু শিক্ষার গুনগত মান কেন বাড়েনি? কেন এখনো বিপুল সংখ্যক বিদেশি বাংলাদেশে কাজ করে বৈদেশিক মুদ্রা নিয়ে যাচ্ছে?

৫। বাজেটে স্বাস্থ্য সেবার বরাদ্দ এক কথায় লজ্জাজনক। কেন বাংলাদেশে আজ সবার জন্য স্বাস্থ্য সেবা নেই? সবার জন্য বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় পর্যন্ত গুনগত শিক্ষা এবং স্বাস্থ্যসেবা ছাড়া উন্নয়ন কি অনেকাংশেই অর্থহীন নয়? আজকে যে যুবক তার ডিগ্রী দিয়ে কাজ পাচ্ছে না অথবা যে ক্যানসার রোগী কোন চিকিতসা পাচ্ছে না, তার কাছে এই উন্নয়নের মূল্য কি?

৬। বাংলাদেশ কেন আজ খুব দাম দিয়ে এলএনজি আমদানি করছে? মায়ানমার যেখানে বঙ্গোপসাগরে তেল গ্যাস অনুসন্ধান শেষে উত্তোলনের প্রস্তুতি নিচ্ছে সেখানে আমরা কেন নতুন কোন গ্যাস ক্ষেত্র আবিষ্কার এবং উত্তোলনের আগ্রহ দেখাইনি? নবায়োনযোগ্য শক্তি নিয়ে আমাদের পরিকল্পনা কি? কেন এবং কার স্বার্থে আমরা কয়লা এবং নিউক্লিয়ার এর মত ঝুঁকিপূর্ণ প্রযুক্তির দিয়ে ঝুঁকছি?

৬। উন্নয়নের পূর্বে দরকার আইনের শাসন। কেন আমরা আমাদের বিচার ব্যবস্থাকে ঢেলে সাজাতে পারিনি? বিচার বিভাগের উপর কি মানুষের কোন আস্থা আছে? আজ যে ধর্ষণের বা ভূমি দস্যুর কাছে জমি হারানোর মত অন্যায়ের বিচার পাচ্ছে না, তার কাছে উন্নয়নের মূল্য কি?

৭। বাজেটের সবচেয়ে বেশি খরচ হয় সরকার এবং জনপ্রশাসন পরিচালনায়। জনপ্রশাসন মানুষকে যে সেবা প্রদান করে, তার উপর কি মানুষ সন্তুষ্ট? জনপ্রশাসন এবং তার সেবার উপর মানুষের কতটুকু আস্থা আছে?

[mufi_02]

Originally Posted by tonmoy.dhaka
It is hard to keep track of the amount of major infrastructure projects that the Government is working on. Gone are the days when Mohakhali Flyover (barely 1 km) was the most important infastructure project of the year.

Here are some of the major projects where work already started

1/ Padma bridge (expected realistic completion time - mid 2020)
2/ Development work at Payra (Port and Major Power generation Hub) -
3/ Metro Rail Line 6
4/ Dhaka Chittagong double like Railway. Only Laksham to Akhaura (72 km remaining), expected completion 2021. Journey time reduced to 3 hours
5/ Nuclear Power Plant (Rooppur, Pabna) - 2023 completion
6/ Matarbari Deep sea port
7/ Purbachal Development
8/ Rampal Coal based Power plant (Not happy about it)
9/ Chittagong LNG Terminal Mahashkhali
10/ Karnaphuli Tunnel

Long live Bangladesh

good list. didn't knew about few of them. Metro Rail construction is well underway last time I was in BD (2 months ago). There is another flyover construction near Mirpur DOHS/Kalshi area.

But #8 is really concerning. I am not sure if this is at all good for the environment and ecology of the already vulnerable area. Do we really need coal based plant when the rest of the world is trying to go green?

[mufi_02]

Originally Posted by ToBeFair
More food for thought
https://www.prothomalo.com/banglades...��াদেশ

I noticed many Bangladeshis feel proud of such list and numbers. They say go to Gulshan/Banani and you see Mercedes, BMWs, Audi and as if that shows the country is progressing. But drive 10 mins further and you will see slums as well.

We have a corrupted understanding of wealth. Unequal distribution of wealth is nothing to be proud of. For example, Mukesh Ambani has the most expensive home in the world but Mumbai overall is still a third world city. The prince of Guinea or Gambia owns like expensive properties in Europe but the country is still dirt poor. Mugabe is probably a billionaire while the rest of country struggles for basic needs.

Similarly we point to Musa bin Shamshers, Salman F Rahmans, Samson Choudhurys, Papons of Bangladesh and list of ultra high net individuals.

[Roey Haque]

All is okay, but you need to give people dignity of labor either through higher wages or having a social safety net. Till that happens, all these improvements really won't mean anything.

Also, deeply sorry to those who are offended, but de-islamization must happen. One must be able to get liquor in corner stores, and all the loud azans need to stop (Noise pollution).

Enforcing such changes will catapult Bd into a truly a free place to live.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Roey Haque
All is okay, but you need to give people dignity of labor either through higher wages or having a social safety net. Till that happens, all these improvements really won't mean anything.

Also, deeply sorry to those who are offended, but de-islamization must happen. One must be able to get liquor in corner stores, and all the loud azans need to stop (Noise pollution).

Enforcing such changes will catapult Bd into a truly a free place to live.

A welfare system is certainly a good idea, but BD might not be wealthy enough as a country to institute it.

But alcohol but is just neocon hogwash. UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar all have very high HDIs - on par with european nations like Greece or Portugal. No legalisation of alcohol or lack of azans.

Increased rates of alcoholism in BD would likely lead to increased rates of sexual assault, hazing, esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, cardiovascular disease, and vehicular accidents. BD doesnt need that.

[Roey Haque]

^ Then why have cigarettes? Makes no sense. Cannot police people like that. Introduce the good, the tax levied on it will also be good revenue for the govt.

I want the people of Bd who drink already, to be able to purchase the drinks legally without any stigma.

[mufi_02]

Some of you guys have very high standards and comparing BD to Sweden with all social safety net and achieving social utopia.

Just to put things into context, BD was known as the “basket case” of the world in the 70s. It was thought the country would always live on charity. In 1974 famine, about 1.5 million died out of hunger. That’s a staggering number.

Fast forward to 2010s and we have achieved food self sufficiency and reduced poverty levels by many folds.

[Roey Haque]

^ It's called vision. You can pat yourself in the back, but if you want to separate from the south asian pack, then give people dignity of labor, and start thinking about some sort of welfare system, at least for the poorest of the poor. Develop this mindset, and you shall break free from the trajectory that was already supposed to happen given the large number of working age people.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Roey Haque
^ Then why have cigarettes? Makes no sense. Cannot police people like that. Introduce the good, the tax levied on it will also be good revenue for the govt.

I want the people of Bd who drink already, to be able to purchase the drinks legally without any stigma.

Cigarettes are just as bad or worse but they don't alter the mind like EtOH. But presence or absence of alcohol isn't a factor at all in the general development of a country.

BD's problem is overpopulation without the necessary high tech economy in order to offset for such a high density population. Garment industry will only take us so far. UAE and Qatar don't have high tech either, forget about competing with the Europeans, they aren't even as tech savy as Turkey or Iran. But they realized that they could diversify their economy around other more easy to obtain things like the financial, entertainment, transportation, and tourism sectors. MBS is attempting to copy the UAE/Qatar model in Saudi but it remains to be seen how successful he will be given UAE and Qatar have already captured the market share in the region and KSA has myriad political factors at play to boot. Saudis may be 20 years too late to the party.