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For balanced growth

2 July 2006, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By T. M. Tonmoy Islam On email
2 July 2006, 18:00 PM
Bangladesh is a 'low-income' country, and its main aim, like any other developing country, is to substantially improve the social and economic performance. Recently, Bangladesh has been enjoying an economic growth of more than 5% per annum. However, it is evident that most of the development is taking place in the cities Dhaka, in particular. One sees flashy malls like Bashundhara City and high-rise buildings springing up in all parts of Dhaka city. But when one travels right outside of Dhaka, he sees a completely different picture. There is no sign of urbanisation, and poverty is widespread. I am not saying that the construction and business boom in Dhaka is bad; it is helping the country increase its GDP by all accounts. However, such Dhaka-centric growth of urbanisation cannot be a good idea for a developing country like Bangladesh where one city is reaping most of the benefits of the economic growth while the rest of the country remains, more or less, the same. This causes people to move to the main city, Dhaka in this case, for economic opportunities, creating a lot of pressure on the existing infrastructure of the city. Such large-scale migration to Dhaka would not occur if other parts of the country could be urbanised and job opportunities created in those areas. The fruits of economic growth of Bangladesh need to be more spread-out.

One way to spread out urbanisation to other parts of the country is to move some of the important government and private institutions from Dhaka to other district headquarters. This will increase the importance of other cities of Bangladesh. One such city that may be considered is Chittagong. Chittagong has been declared the 'Commercial Capital' of Bangladesh. It has a number of important facilities that can encourage the establishment of firms and factories an international airport, a seaport, and a large market for goods and services. However, it is sad to see that the city does not even have the headquarters of a single major commercial bank. The government should encourage some of the public and private commercial banks and other financial institutions to move their headquarters to Chittagong. Staying with Chittagong, we see that the international airport is practically lying idle. Only Biman, GMG and Thai Airways use the facilities of the airport regularly. One way to increase the air-traffic at Chittagong airport is to allow the private airlines to use it as a hub and to fly to any destination in the world. Biman can have Dhaka as its hub. The government should actively encourage other airlines, especially the ones of the Middle-east, to fly into Chittagong. The increased use of Chittagong airport for international travel can reduce pressure on Dhaka's Zia International Airport. Also, a number of hotels can be set up next to Chittagong's airport by private entrepreneurs to provide accommodation to travellers and businessmen. It will also increase the utilisation of Chittagong airport, and can spurt the growth of a high-quality hospitality sector in the port city.

The above two steps will move some of the business from Dhaka to Chittagong, and this will make Chittagong commercially important. This way, Bangladesh can have two cities with commercial importance. These steps will not urbanise the whole country, but they will reduce the sole importance of Dhaka and will spread out the commercial activities across two cities.

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The government has been contemplating allowing a Malaysian firm to build the four-lane highway between Dhaka and Chittagong. The move is a commendable one. Our government does not have sufficient resources to provide all the necessary infrastructure facilities to the citizens. Private initiatives are, therefore, important to fill in this function of the government. The government should also allow private entrepreneurs to construct four or six-lane highways connecting Dhaka with all the major cities, like Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Bogra and Mymensingh on a Build-Own-Operate or a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer basis. This way, the government does not have to worry about building and maintaining the highways of the country. Also, proper and efficient road communication between Dhaka and the rest of the country will encourage investors to invest in building factories in other parts of the country, because transportation of goods to markets can be done quickly. Such highways can help to spread urbanisation all across Bangladesh.

Such steps will prevent Dhaka to be the sole engine of economic growth for Bangladesh.