The news of Bangladesh’s graduation has led to a remarkable jubilation and renewed confidence in the country’s futureThe news of Bangladesh’s graduation has led to a remarkable jubilation and renewed confidence in the country’s future. It “is a slap on the faces of those bottomless basket story-tellers,” said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. While addressing a reception accorded to her at the Bangabandhu International Convention Centre (BICC), the prime minister credited the people of the country for this newly found elevated status and buoyantly declared” “The people can achieve anything.” She further said: “We want to live as a proud nation -- we have proved that we can stand on our own feet.” The journey to this was, however, not easy to say the least. In 1971, Bangladesh as a war-torn newly independent country began with almost nothing and very little international aid and support. The reconstruction efforts, followed by the 1974 famine in which millions died, the political instability, and the ensuing military dictatorship until early 1990 had made many Bangladeshis pessimistic about the country’s future. This began to change, slowly, following the election in 1991 and the establishment of a democratic government. The economic growth and development (as we see today) practically started only in the 1990s led by, among other things, new infrastructure development programs, renewed focus on agriculture and industrial growth, the initiation of the ready made garment industry, manpower export and overseas employment opportunities, export processing zones, rapid expansion of telecommunication sector, micro-credit and gender empowerment, and informal education by many NGOs (namely, Grameen Bank, BRAC, Proshika, and others), and the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with dedicated focus on poverty reduction, gender equality, universal primary education, child mortality, and maternal health. According to all available reports, Bangladesh made remarkable progress over the last decade in the areas of poverty alleviation, ensuring food security, primary school enrolment, gender parity in primary and high schools, lowering infant mortality and maternal mortality ratio, improving immunization coverage and reducing the incidence of communicable diseases. The success of micro-credit programs, informal education, and MDGs had many multiplier effects significantly changing the face of Bangladesh, particularly in the rural areas. Today, Bangladesh is mentioned as a model example internationally. I always find it fascinating when Noble laureate Amartya Sen uses Bangladesh’s success story in poverty reduction, gender empowerment, and maternity health as a model example in his public lectures globally and also in his popular writings. Bangladesh also experienced a boom in infrastructure development, starting with the construction of the Jamuna Bridge Project in mid-1990. Other major infrastructure developments followed in key sectors such as roads/highways, rail, bridges, water resources, flood control, irrigation, energy, power, ports and urban development and renewals. Needless to say that infrastructure development over the past decades have generated, among others, a consistent 6% annual growth rate over the last 10 years. This trend continues today with the multi-billion dollar Padma multipurpose bridge project and many externally funded projects for roads/rail upgrade and network development, and investment facility and joint venture projects worth billions of dollars with India and Russia, specifically power and port projects -- the most notable amongst are Rampal Thermal Power Plant, Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant, Matarbari Coal Power Plant, and Matarbari Deep Sea Port. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government presided over much of the infrastructure development programs in the country and arguably contributed immensely to the graduation from LDC to “developing country” group. So, the current euphoria and national celebrations by the Awami League government are clearly understandable to further capitalize on the success for the next general election, due by the end of 2018. The CDP will further review Bangladesh’s progress in 2021, and the country’s official graduation will take place after a three-year transition period. During this time, Bangladesh will have to face the downsides of graduation such as loss of duty-free and quota-free access to European Union and loss of International Development Association (IDA) type concessional foreign aid. The benefits from the promises include integration to global market and access to capital market. The current strength of the Bangladesh economy and resilience will hopefully ease the graduation process. Meanwhile, let the optimism thrive further into all aspects of public life to build a better life and a stronger country. I don’t recall witnessing such optimism since the Victory Day of 1971. I firmly believe that the people should keep believing in themselves and follow their paths. There may still be grievances for several reasons, which can wait. The people and the country deserve the celebrations now.
Mohammad Zaman is an international development/resettlement specialist and advisory professor at National Research Center for Resettlement (NRCR), Hohai University, Nanjing, China
