Towards a more competitive Bangladesh

It is good news that Bangladesh has jumped up seven places in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competition Index since last year. Last year we ranked 106, and this year we have broken into the top 100 with a ranking of 99th, but surely we can do better. Bangladesh needs to focus on its problem areas, and right now corruption appears to be the biggest hindrance to conducting business. It is also clear that inadequate infrastructure is holding us back from reaching our true potential, as are our inefficient government bureaucracies, and the lack of proper education and training in our workforce. Certainly, we need to invest more in education -- specifically in skilled labour -- which has always been an Achilles heel of ours, standing in the way of new and innovative thinking. Bangladesh can take a page out of high-performing countries like Switzerland, the United States, and Singapore, which have once again topped the list of the most competitive nations. These countries all understand the importance of bringing down institutional barriers to doing business vis-à-vis the rest of the world. The government must crack down hard on corruption and make it easier to enforce contracts by strengthening the court system, and speeding up property registration processes through digitisation. It is also time to fast track all our infrastructure projects -- the lack of a proper road transportation network and an inadequate railway network are hiking up supply costs for business. The Bangladesh economy has moved forward admirably over the years, but a number of factors continue to frustrate us and hold us back. We hope the government takes the right initiatives to improve our place on this list.