|
Books on Bangladesh
REPUBLICAN REFERENCE
Area (sq.km)
144,000
Population
144,319,628
Capital
Dhaka
Currency
taka (BDT)
President
Iajuddin Ahmed
|
Update No: 010 - (30/10/06)
Founder of Grameen Bank wins Nobel Peace Prize
Bangladesh witnessed a monumental achievement when Professor Muhammad Yunus,
founder of the country's Grameen Bank, was declared to win the Nobel Peace Prize
2006 for pioneering the use of micro-credit to benefit the poor self-employed.
Prof Yunus is the first Bangladeshi and also the third Bengalee after poet
Rabindranath Tagore and economist Amartya Sen to win the Nobel Prize. Grameen
Bank which was founded by Prof Yunus has offered loans to millions of poor
Bangladeshis, many of them women, without any financial security, in improving
their standard of living. The bank helped them to start up business by allowing
them to borrow tiny sums of money. Prof. Yunus began his crusade against poverty
during a 1974 famine in Bangladesh when he used US$27 loan out of his pocket to
help 42 women buy weaving tools to save them from the clutches of the
moneylenders. Yunus is the brain behind the concept of micro-credit, which gives
poor entrepreneurs who cannot qualify for traditional bank loans very small sums
to start up their own enterprises. Today the bank claims to have 6.6 million
borrowers, 97 per cent of them women, and provides services in more than 70,000
villages in Bangladesh. Its model of micro-financing has inspired similar
efforts around the world. "Micro-credit has proved to be an important
liberating force in societies where women in particular have to struggle against
repressive social and economic conditions," the Nobel Committee noted. Prof
Yunus was jubilant on hearing the news and said that he would be very happy to
accept the awards in Oslo on December 10. Prof Yunus and the bank will share in
the US$1.4 million prize as well as a gold medal and diploma. Yunus's major
contribution has been his effort at developing the economic baseline of
Bangladesh and his cause is noteworthy for the advancement of democracy and
human rights. Many institutions along the lines of the Grameen Bank have emerged
in different parts of the world indicating a clear acceptance of the merits of
the bank's approach.
Quelling the Voice of Dissent?
While Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize and made headlines in addition to
making Bangladeshi's proud, the country is still appalling in its approach to
human rights and freedom of speech. A good example of this is when Salah Uddin
Shoaib Choudhury, editor and journalist of the Weekly Blitz was beaten by an
angry mob of people who left the journalist injured. To understand the nature of
this episode, one has to look back at November 2003, when Choudhury was arrested
at Dhaka's International Airport as he was preparing to board a flight on his
way to Israel, where he was due to deliver a speech on promoting mutual
understanding between Muslims and Jews. Choudhury's visit to Israel would have
been the first by a Bangladeshi journalist. However, the Bangladesh government
does not recognize Israel's existence. As a result, upon his return to the
country, Choudhury was held in prison for 17 months, where he was reportedly
tortured and was finally released in April 2005. Yet, the journalist's ordeal
did not stop here. Authorities in Bangladesh, which is ruled by a coalition
government that includes Islamic extremists, decided to pursue charges of
sedition and espionage against him for advocating ties with Israel. This is also
the reason why he was recently attacked and beaten by a crowd in Bangladesh that
allegedly included leading officials of the country's ruling party, The
Jerusalem Post reported.
Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal has written a valuable piece on the
right to freedom of speech in Bangladesh. Stephens sardonically points out that
while the US State Department's Richard Boucher recently portrayed Bangladesh as
"a traditionally moderate and tolerant country" that shares America's
"commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law", reality
seems to disprove Broucher's claim. According to Stephens, Bangladesh is a one
of the world's most corrupt countries and is governed by a coalition, in
addition to the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party of Prime Minister Khaleda
Zia which includes two fundamentalist Islamic parties that advocate the
imposition of Shariah law. There are an estimated 64,000 madrassas (religious
schools) in Bangladesh. The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka has kept track of Mr.
Choudhury and plans to send an observer to his trial. But mainly America's
diplomats seem to have treated him as a nuisance. Even though Choudhury's
intentions are remarkable to the extent of being self critical of the Muslim
world, the US government seems reluctant to support the cause of one man.
Stephen further argues that the Bush administration, which every year spends
some $64 million on Bangladesh, has made a priority of identifying moderate
Muslims and giving them the space and cover they need to spread their ideas but
what is the administration doing right now? America needs to use this moment to
tell Bangladesh what it feels about its moderate and tolerant friends.
Political Turmoil
According to a Reuter's report, Bangladesh's ruling party has rejected an
opposition demand to reconsider its choice of a caretaker administration to
supervise elections next year, further exacerbating a long standing political
row. The main opposition Awami League, leading a 14-party alliance, had long
demanded the government to involve it in choosing the head of the interim
authority to ensure that the elections are free and fair. Khaleda's Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP) said that it would stick by its choice of former Supreme
Court chief justice K.M. Hasan to head the caretaker administration, despite
opposition charges that he had past links with the ruling party. "According
to the constitution, we are going to appoint Justice Hasan to the post of
caretaker chief. Awami League must accept it," BNP secretary-general Abdul
Mannan Bhuiyan said. "If anyone wants to do it otherwise, I am afraid the
entire election process may come to a halt in the country," Bhuiyan said.
"This may plunge the country into a constitutional crisis," Bhuiyan
said, adding that "there is no way we can accommodate the opposition's
demand." Abdul Jalil, Awami's general secretary and main opposition
negotiator, said: "The government has pushed the country into new
uncertainties and a period of likely violence and chaos."
Economy
The country's rules on Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) are beneficial and
encouraging for investments as foreign companies are well accepted here based on
a survey report by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). The report also said the
business environment improved as the cost on common crime and violence reduced
and the tax system was simplified in 2006 compared to the previous year. The
country has made notable development in ease of access to cellular telephones
and also made progress in internet access in the schools, government offices and
buying or selling of goods, it added. The CPD's survey, titled, 'Bangladesh
Business Environment Study (BBES) - 2006' deals with issues related to
macroeconomic strategy, public institutions, infrastructure, technology,
financial development and environmental situation. CPD Executive Director Dr
Debapriya Bhattachariya presented the survey report to newspersons at a press
conference at the CPD office. Dr. Debapriya said in the GCR-2006-07 that
Bangladesh made a visible improvement in macro economic management,
technological readiness and market efficiency from the previous year but no
noticeable change was made in health and primary and higher education and the
country recorded a marked deterioration in infrastructure, institutions,
business sophistication and innovation."
The cost of exporting and importing goods is higher in Bangladesh than other
countries in South Asia as it entails an expenditure of about US$1,100 to bring
a standard 20-foot container. As per an Asian Development Bank report, it costs
less than US$400 in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and less than US$500 in
Malaysia to bring a standard 20-foot container across the border. But it costs
about US$1,100 in Bangladesh and US$800 in Sri Lanka to do the same. The lack of
adequate physical infrastructure in South Asia is well documented, and is
repeatedly highlighted as one of the major constraints to sustaining high
economic growth in the region, particularly for the manufacturing sector.
According to the report, electricity is the most critical bottleneck and within
South Asia. Bangladesh experiences most problems in power supply and more than
70 per cent of firms view electricity problems as a major or very severe
constraint to business. In Bangladesh, electrical outages occur 249 times a year
and more than 70 per cent of firms have generators that supply 19 per cent of
total electric consumption, the report said. Also, in India, electricity is
viewed as a major or very severe constraint to business by more than 25 per cent
of firms. About 64 per cent of firms have generators that also supply 19 per
cent of total electric consumption, the report said. In South Asia, the time to
obtain an electrical connection averages 55 days compared to only seven days in
the Philippines or 10 days in the PRC. Around 63 per cent of firms in South Asia
have installed costly generators compared to only 16 per cent in Thailand and 18
per cent in the PRC. While progress is being made in the infrastructure sector
in South Asia as a result of a revolution in telecommunication policies making
South Asia has one of the fastest growing mobile phone markets in the world,
most South Asian countries have also increased public spending on
infrastructure. However, in addition to increasing public investment, there is a
need for better targeting of such investment and further improving sector
policies and institutional environment.
« Top
|
