Bangladesh at 50

Dr Shamsul Alam, Minister of State, Ministry of Planning, talks about the era of new national planning

Not long ago, the pessimists and the sceptic overlooked the development of Bangladesh merely as a fluke. Standing at the Golden Jubilee of the independence of the country, the policymakers of Bangladesh can now breathe a sigh of relief that it has put an end to the stigma of ‘international basket case’. Bangladesh is now following the path of the Asian miracle, proving the doubters wrong. Since the inception of the Human Development Report in 1990, the value of Human Development Index (HDI) of Bangladesh increased by 60.4 per cent, from 0.394 to 0.632 in 2019. Accordingly, the index now positions Bangladesh in the medium human development category.

Let us retrospect the tumultuous first few decades since the birth of the nation. After the destruction of infrastructure and loss of lives during the war, the Father of the Nation ventured courageously to rebuild the country. Immediately after returning to the country on January 10, 1972, Bangabandhu issued an order on January 31, 1972 to establish the Bangladesh Planning Commission. The first five-year plan was prepared within one and a half year of the liberation of Bangladesh. In the words of Professor Nurul Islam, then Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and Member of General Economics Division (GED) “Bangladesh inherited a poor, undiversified economy, characterised by an under-developed infrastructure, stagnant agriculture, and a rapidly growing population. She had suffered from colonial exploitation and missed opportunities with debilitating effect on initiative and enterprise.” To give it some perspective, Bangladesh where over 80 per cent population was living in poverty, was only ahead of one country,Burkina Faso — at that time in terms of quality of life.

In the first five-year plan, poverty reduction, although without a specific target being set, and reconstruction were the major objectives while GDP growth was targeted to be 5.5 per cent per annum. Bangabandhu always believed in the promotion of self-reliance and the reduction of dependence on foreign aid. From that perspective, he focused on prioritising agriculture and established Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, Bangladesh Rural Development Board and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council to coordinate and direct researches on agriculture. Within three years, Bangladesh was poised to expand her economy through the establishment of major institutions, accomplish reforms in agriculture, particularly on-setting green revolution, but the demise of the great leader left the country in peril. The momentum of socio-economic development slowed down and the period of economic stagnation with political upheavals started. So, the political stability — necessary for sustained growth, faded away, and a situation of uncertainty loomed large. Fourteen years from 1975 to 1990 happened to be a missed opportunity for Bangladesh to thrive.

The scenario began to gradually change in the early 1990s and since 2009, the transformation got full momentum. From 2002 to 2010, there were no five-year plans, rather the government adopted donor-driven poverty reduction strategy papers. The present government assumed the power with a landslide victory under the visionary and pragmatic leadership of Sheikh Hasina in 2009 for the second time. She envisaged Bangladesh to be a prosperous country that our Father of the Nation had dreamt of. She believes in the will-power of the people and is confident that with proper guidance and directions, they can be an immeasurable source of power. The PM initiated an era of new national planning, which started with Vision 2021 that articulates a transformed Bangladesh, moving it towards establishing a knowledge-based society, addressing climate change and promoting innovation under Digital Bangladesh. Bangladesh is now on the verge of achieving many of the targets set in the Vision 2021. For example, power generation capacity was targeted to reach 20,000 MW by 2021, which is now above 25,000 MW, with 99.5 per cent of the population having access to electricity with a per capita consumption of 560 KWH. The life expectancy has now reached 72.8 against the target of 70 years in 2021.

Sheikh Hasina has emphasised on building up the economy, following a planned path of growth with development of human capital and facilitating export-led growth, which gave a new perspective for national planning. The long-term vision is followed by medium-term interval plan (five-year plan). Furthermore, the philosophical foundation of the plans had been derived from the five basic human needs, as enunciated in the constitution. Poverty reduction, employment generation at home and abroad, human resource development and inclusive growth remain at the centre of discussion. Additionally, to address the adverse impact of climate change, formulation of a long-term plan was felt necessary. This whole perspective has been termed as the new national planning era.

The leader of Bangladesh does not seem to be complacent of what has been achieved in the last decade. It is just the beginning of Bangladesh’s path to prosperity. The country now wants to become an upper-middle country by 2031 and high-income country by 2041, underlined in the second Perspective Plan of Bangladesh (2021-2041). The country will be guided by this 20-year-long plan with strategic goals on industrialisation with export-oriented manufacturing, paradigm shifts in agriculture, a service sector of the future—providing the bridge for the transformation of the rural agrarian economy to a primarily industrial and digital economy, urban transition, efficient energy and infrastructure. This will help in building a Bangladesh resilient to climate change, establishing the country as a knowledge hub destination. A paradigm shift in the planning process has showed Bangladesh a new era of development. Building on the success in the last decade, Bangladesh will be moving on the path that had been dreamt by the Father of the Nation.