Mamun Rashid

Traditionally, natural gas has been the primary source of energy in Bangladesh. For the last few years, domestic gas production has been declining and we have started importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet the excess demand.  

Despite diverse challenges, the banking sector is evolving faster than ever before, and such changes are expected to happen even quicker in the coming years.

Although our banking sector itself is lagging behind its neighbouring peers, the story of the non-banking financial institution (NBFI) sector is rather much more precarious.

Let me start by thanking the central bank for its recent circular on the foreign currency cash holding limit. This should help us not to dollarise our economy and face the fate of Cambodia, where a lot of people have forgotten their local currency’s name over the years.  

There is possibly no denying that in view of a very weak opposition along with a not-so-active parliament, some above-average and reasonably honest civil bureaucrats have taken command of the country’s policy regime.

Out of my 26 years with three global banks, I spent more than half of it in treasury dealing room environment in Dhaka, Mumbai, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, London, and New York.  

Like in any other developing country, all public interest projects in Bangladesh are supposed to be well thought out with their ultimate impacts reviewed. However, courtesy of the media, even the state investigation agencies, we mostly don’t get to hear good things about projects being well-researched, the ultimate impact on the target market or group well-thought out, finance being well-managed or done with sincerity of purpose. 

Before delving into the matter of blue bonds, it is important to briefly understand the “blue economy” itself. Blue economy is a term in economics which relates to the preservation and exploration of the marine environment.

Sovereign debt, which is usually in the form of securities, is issued by a nation’s government to borrow money and may also be referred to as government debt, public debt, and national debt. This borrowing is done for a variety of reasons, from financing public investments to boosting employment.

In March 2020, when governments around the world announced lockdowns and quarantine to prevent the spread of a contagious disease, no one could anticipate what would happen. Covid-19 changed the order of businesses in such a disruptive manner that it made even long-established corporations rethink management practices and how to do business in this new reality.

The circular economy has quickly become one of the most popular buzzwords in business literature with many reputed publications claiming it to be the solution to the inherent conflict that exists between the profit incentive of businesses, the society businesses operate in and the external costs they impose on society.

Investors typically take 5 to 10 years of historical data as a basis for projections of the future. But in cases such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or Sri Lanka’s rapid economic deterioration, the past is not a metric that can be relied on for the future.

Bosses indeed play a key role in determining a worker's happiness factor. More than half of the employees responding to an annual job-satisfaction survey admit they do not leave companies, they leave bosses.

In today’s dynamic and ever-changing business environment the need to transform, reshape and restructure is a constant and no longer an option.

The private sector is well-known for its efficiency but is also negatively viewed for its greed and an inherent nature that lacks focus on welfare. The public sector is considered to work for the benefit of the people but is often cited as being inefficient and wasteful.

Fifty years of Bangladesh is marked with a few significant achievements. The country became a $400-plus billion economy in 2021. Per capita income rose to $2,554 in FY21, which is higher than our neighbouring countries, including India.

I took over as head of treasury and a country senior team member in the then ANZ Grindlays Bank in early 1988 and since then worked as a senior executive in three global banks at home and abroad.

Knowledge never stays still. There is a constant evolution of knowledge as insights are built upon previous ones and the pace of knowledge growth has never been faster than in the 21st century.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) puts the onus back on business enterprises themselves. Under this concept, it becomes the duty of businesses to be conscious of the kind of impact they have on various aspects of society from the economic, social, and environmental perspectives.

I take pride in sharing with my readers that I was taught branding at Kellogg School of Management by a certain Professor Philip Kotler. At the same time, my piece on “Branding Bangladesh” drew the attention of Simon Anholt, known to be a guru of this subject, who subsequently wrote a piece on nation branding in the local newspaper.