Economist Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman, the Executive Chairman of the research institute Power and Participation Research Center (PPRC) believes that the potential of Bangladesh's economy and development is caught in the trap of inefficiency.
On Wednesday (June 12) at a hotel in the capital, he said in an event titled 'Budget Dialogue 2024', this trap is made by us. It is not imposed from outside.
While speaking on the key-note paper presented by Executive Director of CPD Dr. Famida Khatun, Hossain Zillur said that investment decisions in education and health in Bangladesh are not coming from integrated thinking, infrastructure and services are not being coordinated.
He said that a large part of the allocation in education is going to the infrastructure sector. Again 500 bed hospital is being built and service is being given to 50 bed hospital.
Claiming that the government's money is being wasted due to inefficiency in project selection, he said that many projects are being abandoned midway. He commented that this inefficiency is equivalent to an epidemic.
This economist also said that many ministries take large allocations at the beginning of the year and return the allocations at the end of the year due to inefficiency in implementation. He urged to address the problems of implementation efficiency, governance and development strategy to ensure freedom from such inefficiency trap.
Commenting that the country has been moving forward based on the garment industry and remittances for the last four to five decades, he said, new growth drivers should be searched for the future.
Dr. Hossain Zillur called the country's entrepreneurial class and workers as ducks that lay golden eggs, and said that they are trying to slaughter those golden ducks every year without nurturing them.
Urging to improve the investment environment to sustain growth, he said, entrepreneurs need business environment more than credit facilities. He said that bureaucratic complexity is still a big obstacle in business.
He said that 100 special economic zones have been formed, but in reality only four or five have been launched.
Claiming that there is no solution to all these problems in the economy, he further said that such problems should be solved through political economy.
Commenting that the entire potential of the country is stuck in the iron triangle of political economy, he said, this triangle of lack of accountability, lack of strategic skills and overall institutionalization of corruption should be broken.