The country’s economic growth would not be sustainable without ensuring good governance, economists say.
They suggested that reforms and depoliticisation were urgently needed in autonomous bodies to function independently and professionally. They also recommended reaching political consensus among the political parties for the economic development.
The observations came at the concluding session on Public Policy Making and Institutions of a two-day conference of Bangladesh Economists’ Forum (BEF) at a city hotel yesterday.
“Good governance is needed not only for growth, good governance is more needed for ensuring basic human rights,” said economist Akbar Ali Khan.
He said: “In the last four decades, there has been deteriorating governance. We have two elite groups – one is succeeding each other with no clear vision where to go. Unfortunately, things are deteriorating. If things deteriorate, neither growth nor structure will last. That is why it is high time there should be political consensus for governance.”
Political parties should sit together to draw a programme of good governance where politicisation would be minimised, he said. Big reforms were needed in the administration, but there was no concern about that, while no political party had really given any blue print on how things would be reformed.
In the keynote paper, economist Wahiduddin Mahmud said Bangladesh has had a unique record of experiencing accelerated average annual growth of GDP per capita in every five-year period since the last half of the 1990s, but the ongoing growth stagnation may jeopardise the continuation of that record beyond 2010.
“The challenge is to gradually expand governance effectiveness and good practices beyond some existing enclaves. Unfortunately, the reverse seems to have been happening in Bangladesh,” he said.
The credibility of our financial sector or the quality of our economic diplomacy would increasingly become major detriments of how far we can benefit by leveraging the emerging global order, he noted.
He recommended that a more cooperative and accommodative approach among the political parties would also be needed to sustain any workable form of democracy.
In his keynote paper, economist M Khalid Shams said there was a clear need for initiating regulatory reforms, more effective enforcement of law and order based on a “rule of law, further decentralisation within political parties, decentralisation of government, professionalisation of bureaucracy, depoliticisation of professional bodies etc.”
He said at this critical stage of country’s development, “we need strong political will regarding reforms in governance that would accelerate our economic growth.” Judicial reforms are essential for ensuring human rights, he said.
Former adviser to a caretaker government Mirza Azizul Islam said growth was not only objective for the development. “But growth is a pre-condition for other objective for the development.
“There is really no difference among the political parties with regard to basic development strategy. And that strategy focuses on private sector led growth,” he said. Given that, “we needed private sector investment as a precondition to accelerate the growth,” Azizul said.
He suggested the government to develop infrastructure as a fast track basis for boosting the private sector investment. He also put importance on health and education sector that contribute to the growth and poverty alleviation.
Prime Minister’s Political Adviser Hossain Taufique Imam, BNP chairperson’s Adviser Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Gowher Rizvi, economists Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmed and Professor Emeritus AR Khan also spoke.
