Over the past two weeks, it’s been very heartening to see that NRB friends and colleagues from my days in the US, and many people that I don’t even know, took the time and care to provide in-depth feedback on my last two columns, with a particular focus on what NRBs can do to engage in the development of Bangladesh.
I am left with three realizations.
One, the zeal of the NRBs to engage in the development of Bangladesh is palpable and undeniable despite a cynicism here and a doubt there.
Two, practically everyone agrees this engagement must be much deeper and more consistent, rising beyond mere donations after floods and cyclones or an accidental investment in an AI company.
Three, this engagement has to be systematically orchestrated by the state by fixing the unwelcome reception NRBs get from the time they land in the country to the overly bureaucratic hurdles they face every step of the way in making an investment.
I was fortunate to feel the NRB zeal in 2000 when we hosted TechBangla and Silicon Bangla conferences in the east and west coasts of the US and in Bangladesh. I was part of the NRB contingent then proposing what should be done.
I was lucky again to feel the zeal in the Conference for NRB Engineers (CONE) in February 2019 inaugurated by the prime minister and subsequent high-level and operational-level follow-up meetings in the US and in Bangladesh. This time I was part of the state apparatus formulating what could be done.
True, these conferences catalyzed many collaborations between NRBs and Bangladeshi private sector, academia, and to some extent, the government. However, we missed incredible opportunities to systematize these engagements and kept them accidental and ad hoc, grossly unrealizing the return on our intellectual and political investment. This is particularly true for CONE2019 which generated massive expectations and triggered structures within the government to host a platform for deep and consistent NRB engagement. But we didn’t follow through effectively.
This is very unfortunate, especially considering we all agree NRBs are a fantastically untapped resource for the development of Bangladesh in terms of philanthropy, investment and expertise. This is precisely what I want to focus on this week: NRB engagement in three forms summed up through the simple acronym PIE -- philanthropy with recognition, investment with return, and expert affiliation with remuneration.
Philanthropy with recognition
Research shows that an NRB professional in the US donates an average of about $4,000 every year to Bangladesh. The challenge for us now is to channel this financial contribution to productive pursuits that will result in more focused development outcomes in priority areas of the country.
Two such areas are technology infrastructure for education, the great need for which was evidenced during the pandemic, and healthcare infrastructure to meet the universal health coverage commitment by 2030.
The NRBs are possibly contributing to both education and healthcare in the local communities they trust, but this contribution can be multiplied by creating national education and health projects for NRBs. There are myriad possibilities beyond education and healthcare as well.
In return, such philanthropy can be properly recognized at the national level in addition to local community recognition. A platform called EkDesh a2i piloted during the pandemic can offer an effective channel for such philanthropy with recognition.
Investment with return
With a hundred new economic zones in the offing and dozens of megaprojects over ground, underground, and in water, air, and space, Bangladesh offers unprecedented opportunities to get in on the ground floor of investment before the next round becomes too expensive.
However, for this to happen to a meaningful measure, the investment red-tapes must be removed, or at least simplified to a level NRB investors are used to in their host countries.
During and after CONE2019, we identified the top bottlenecks of investment and repatriation across several agencies of the government. We made a commitment to simplify and digitize processes. Only marginal progress has been made in three years since the conference.
Of the government agencies that have launched one-stop service for potential investors, some are more ready than others to engage with the NRBs. These agencies must lead the way to create a culture of trust where NRBs are not afraid of being duped or dragged through processions in their bid to engage with their motherland.
Expert affiliation with remuneration
We in Bangladesh must realize that NRBs are “foreign” experts when they come to Bangladesh to share their knowledge and expertise. We have over 600,000 middle managers from many countries running our manufacturing and service sectors, and sending $10bn a year in outward remittances to their countries.
How is it possible that we can’t find suitable NRB managers to replace at least some of them and keep the money in the country, or allow sending part of it to their host countries? Why is it that we expect NRBs to offer their expertise as an act of philanthropy, based on maatir taan?
We must create opportunities for these experts to be compensated at or near market rates, and fund their research as well. Two recent and forward-thinking examples of projects brought by NRBs, one establishing a Computer Aided Engineering Centre focused on simulation techniques for advanced engineering research, and the other developing nano-satellites potentially leading to space programs in Bangladesh, both funded by the a2i innovation fund, show the bounds of possibility.
Being true to our inherent nature
We have the opportunity to continue to expand the PIE moving forward. However, in order to do that, it dawns on me that we have to be true to our nature. We have to unlearn certain behaviours and be honest with ourselves.
Bangladeshis are known to have one of the most hospitable natures of any people around the globe. Even a poor household will sacrifice the lone chicken to feed the guests.
Then, why is it that our offices, starting from the airport to the investment centres to the tax authorities to the embassies, feature such inhospitable rules and behaviour?
We are surely not born with this mindset. In fact, quite the opposite. Inhospitality seems to be a “learned” behaviour dictated by archaic rules that don’t fit in the Digital Bangladesh of 2021, and certainly not the Innovative Bangladesh of 2041 that we want to build.
Just as we’ve simplified rules for hundreds of services to the common citizens through Service Process Simplification (SPS) and developed “hospitality mindset” within the service providers through Empathy Training, it cannot be an impossible task to do so for a dozen services to the NRBs.
Let us start with the airport, investment and tax authorities, and our embassies.
Let us start by declaring the 2020s as the decade of the NRBs, so we are not restricted to a day or an event, and are forced to think about what we will achieve by the end of the decade.
Anir Chowdhury is a US techpreneur turned Bangladeshi govpreneur serving as the Policy Advisor of a2i in ICT Division and Cabinet Division supported by UNDP.
