IMF ranks Hasina’s Bangladesh ahead of Modi’s India in per capita income



 Staff Correspondent, Barta24.com  
IMF ranks Hasina’s Bangladesh ahead of Modi’s India in per capita income

IMF ranks Hasina’s Bangladesh ahead of Modi’s India in per capita income

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Last month, the International Monetary Fund ranked Bangladesh ahead of India in per capita income. While the juxtaposition further shamed Narendra Modi's stewardship in New Delhi, it reminded global investors how much Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has got right in Dhaka these last 11 years. And how the nation Henry Kissinger famously dismissed as a "basket case," is also having a terrific U.S.-China trade war.

Among developing nations having "good" COVID-19 crises, Bangladesh may be the most surprising.

Back in, say, May, the South Asian economic backwater was the subject of gloomy prognostications. Its densely populated cities, rudimentary health care system and a government deemed unready for prime-time were viewed as a recipe for disaster.

Not so much. This nation of 165 million people has recorded about 6,300 coronavirus deaths, 1,000 fewer than my hometown of Queens, New York. The Bangladesh economy is set to grow 4%-plus this year, and in ways that have heads exploding in neighboring India.

Since 2017, Donald Trump's tariffs mostly benefited Vietnam. Its 97 million-plus population, locale and reasonably similar governing dynamic made Vietnam an obvious hedge against Washington vs. Beijing fallout -- a mini-China, if you will.

Quietly, though, Hasina's government positioned Bangladesh's garments-industry oriented, lower-wage economy as another haven for multinational companies looking to diversify away from China. Look no further than Fast Retailing, whose Uniqlo brand is a growing employer in Hasina's nation.

Yet the truly hard part is just beginning: harnessing recent success to ensure Bangladesh can woo more business its way.

The shift in South Asia's economic pecking order presents a rare window of opportunity. If Hasina's government can continue to improve social indicators -- including poverty rates -- and work harder to modernize economic institutions, the pivot to Bangladesh will gain momentum and raise per capita income far beyond today's roughly $1,900.

Yet it is a big if as COVID-19 second and third waves decimate economies from the U.S. to France to India. Though China is growing, perhaps as much as 2% this year, its import needs are more in the semiconductor orbit than fast fashion products.

Here are four ways Dhaka can accelerate the transition to middle-income status and woo more companies like Uniqlo its way.

1.raise its ease-of-doing-business score. The reason CEOs of multinationals love Vietnam is the limited red tape as well as regulators who understand that there are other options. That explains why Vietnam ranks 70th on the World Bank business environment tables and Bangladesh is a distant 168th. Trailing Cameroon and Myanmar will not win Dhaka the levels of foreign direct investment needed to get per capita income closer to $10,000.

Along with the need to "diversify the economy," says Ahsan Mansur, chairperson of Bangladesh's ubiquitous Brac Bank, "we need a lot of effort to improve on the doing business indicator and on infrastructure development." All these challenges are intricately linked, of course. The key is increasing transparency, curbing graft and increasing efficiency.

2.accelerate financial reform. Though Hasina got lots right on the development front, her team made an unfortunate mistake earlier this year by capping bank interest rates at 9%. This experiment, borrowed from Kenya, was meant to keep high borrowing costs from slowing growth. It backfired, warping the pricing of risk in a nation already plagued by bad loans.

As of June, nonperforming loans had risen to a worrisome 9.2% of total loans. The good news is that Hasina's team is accelerating the development of a corporate bond market. The hope is to reduce companies' reliance on bank financing, an important step as Dhaka moves up market production-wise. Yet more urgency is required if Bangladesh is to catch Vietnam.

3.invest big in human capital. A big feather in Muslim-majority Bangladesh's cap is how it largely avoided the tribal and sectarian squabbles that have dogged Pakistan and increasingly India. It is a gender-equality exemplar, ranking 71 rungs above Japan in the World Economic Forum's tables, and 37 ahead of Vietnam and 62 ahead of India.

Yet to attract more of the jobs fleeing China and avoiding India, Dhaka must spend exponentially more on education, training and increasing productivity. A key reason Vietnam has emerged as Southeast Asia's big winner in the COVID-19 era is that it has followed the path of earlier Asian tigers and strengthened labor pools. Bangladesh is following this East Asian model more dutifully than India. Bigger investments in human capital would turbocharge Dhaka's development boom.

4.digitalize the economy. Back in February, before the coronavirus changed everything, I spent a day with Kamal Quadir, co-founder of mobile banking sensation bKash used by nearly 50 million people. Its financial supporters include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank's International Finance Corporation and Jack Ma's Ant Group.

Impressive as I found Quadir and bKash's sprawling downtown Dhaka campus, this is but one example of the good that will come from Hasina's team digitalizing of a nation on the move. It is a means of pulling the nearly 50% of the adult population that is unbanked into the financial system and reminding Delhi that India is not Southeast Asia's only superpower.

William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of "Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan's Last Decades."

   

Dhaka is the sixth most polluted city in the world, Seoul is on top



Staff Correspondent, Barta24.com
Photo: Collected

Photo: Collected

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Today, Dhaka is sixth in the list of the most polluted cities in the world. The air quality of the capital has become 'unhealthy' with an Air Quality Index (AQI) score of 172 at 6:50 am today.

South Korea's capital Seoul topped the air quality index with 343. South Korea's Incheon, Pakistan's Lahore, Vietnam's Chiang Mai and India's Delhi occupy the second, third, fourth and fifth places in the list with AQI scores of 217, 187, 179 and 177 respectively.

An AQI score between 101 and 200 is considered 'unhealthy' for sensitive groups. An AQI score between 201 and 300 is considered 'very unhealthy'. And an AQI between 301 and 400 is considered 'hazardous', posing a serious health risk to residents.

AQI in Bangladesh is determined based on 5 parameters of pollution, namely - Particulate Matter (PM10 & PM2.5), NO2, CO, SO2 and Ozone (O3).

Dhaka has been suffering from air pollution for a long time. Its air quality generally becomes unhealthy during winters and improves slightly during monsoons.

In March 2019, a report by the Department of Environment and the World Bank stated that the three main causes of Dhaka's air pollution are brick kilns, smoke from vehicles and dust from construction activities.

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Taka 400 crores laundered through digital Hundi, controlled by Dubai



Staff Correspondent, Barta24.com
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Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has arrested 5 people for allegedly laundering around Tk. 400 crore abroad through Digital Hundi using Mobile Banking Service (MFS).

CID Chief Additional IGP Mohammad Ali Mia informed this in a press conference at CID headquarters on Thursday (March 28) afternoon.

The arrested are - Nasim Ahmed (62), the owner of Tasmia Associates, Fazle Rabbi Sumon (32), the territory sales manager of Agent SIM, Md. Kamruzzaman (33), Zahir Uddin (37), representative of Jet Robotics Apps Bangladesh and Khairul Islam alias Pius (34).

Additional IGP Mohammad Ali Mia said, a gang has smuggled around Tk. 400 crore abroad through digital Hundi using mobile banking services. Five members of this gang were arrested during the operation.

He said that Tk. 400 crores illegally came to Bangladesh through Jet Robotics app in the last few months. Police traced the app through intelligence.

He also said that the money of this gang was transacted from the Chattogram based distribution house. Five members of the gang were arrested in separate raids in Dhaka and Chattogram on Wednesday night.

He said that Tk. 28 lakh 51 thousand cash was seized from them at the time of arrest. He said that they used to rent development agent SIMS and deliver money through them to the grassroots level.

The head of CID said that Mamun, the master of this gang lives in Dubai. He is using agent SIM here. This app used for smuggling cannot work outside 48 SIM along the specific link sent from Dubai. Only seven people can enter this app.

Referring to this as a modern form of Hundi business, he said, money is being circulated in the country through this app by blocking remittances coming to Bangladesh. Already we got 5-7 more such organizations who are working like this.

He said, in the last three months, Tk. 400 crores have been hindered from coming to Bangladesh through Jet Robotic Apps. Five people using these apps have been arrested and their devices seized.

He said, Chattogram's development distribution house Tasmia Associates company has 1000 Bkash Agent SIMs. These agent SIMs who are not performing well, the agent SIMs provide DSOs to the users of Jet Robotic Apps.

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Demand for punishment for those responsible for electrocution death in Moulvibazar



Staff Correspondent, Barta24.com, Dhaka
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The death of 6 members of the same family due to electrocution in Moulvibazar is very shocking and heartbreaking. The chairman of the National Human Rights Commission Dr. Kamaluddin Ahmed said that the main responsible person and institution should be brought under accountability.

He made this comment at a discussion on 'Role of Media in Protection of Human Rights and Consumer Rights' organized by 'Business Digest' at a hotel in the capital on Thursday (March 28).

The Chairman of the Human Rights Commission said, after investigating the incident of Moulvibazar, appropriate legal action should be taken against those responsible and necessary measures should be taken to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. We could not do anything for one family, but we have to do for hundreds of such families.

He also said that the issue of rights is directly and indirectly the daily practice of the media. Media can question all the irregularities; make people aware of their rights and duties and play an important role in establishing rights. We can carry out reformative activities only in view of the news published in the media.

Dr. Kamal Uddin Ahmed called on the media workers to take all-out efforts to spread the necessary knowledge about the constitution, law and rights among the people.

At one stage of the discussion, he said about the recurrence of fires, we have not learned proper lessons from the big fires and explosions in Nimatli, Newmarket and Bangabazar in the past years. Had we taken effective measures, recurrence of fires could have been prevented.

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Suggestion to introduce Human Rights Wing in the Foreign Ministry



Staff Correspondent, Barta24.com, Dhaka
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Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recommended setting up a new wing on human rights to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The suggestion was made at the parliamentary committee meeting held at Jatiya Sangsad Bhavan on Thursday (March 28). After the meeting, this information was informed in a press release of the Parliament Secretariat.

The meeting recommended taking necessary steps to recognize March 25 as International Genocide Day. A proposal was made in the meeting to visit the Rohingya camps Kutupalong and Bhasanchar with the members of the Standing Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Chairman of the committee AK Abdul Momen chaired the meeting and members of the committee and Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud, Shahriar Alam, Nahim Razzak, Nizam Uddin Jalil, Nurul Islam Nahid, Habibur Rahman, Saimum Sarwar, Zara Zabeen Mahbub took part in the meeting. #

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