Is Bangladesh cheap?

. PHOTO: STAR

Surely, Bangladesh is very cheap for casual visitors from West Europe and Northern American countries but certainly not for millions of poor Bangladeshi people. A taxi-ride from Sonargaon Hotel to Dhanmondi costs Tk 27:00 and from Dhaka University to Mohammadpur Tk 60 only. No doubt, it is very cheap. From the economic point of view, it is self-destructive and the poor taxi driver has no choice but to continue with this non-productive business activity. He cannot fix a reasonable price neither for his investment, nor for the toil he undertakes driving the passengers.

Similarly, five dollars per person for a nice meal at a Chinese restaurant is cheap but again a university professor in Dhaka earns less than 10 dollars a day and over 60% of the population can never visit such a restaurant.

Can we still say Bangladesh is cheap? However, I have no objection if Dr. Ahmed's write-up was to encourage foreign tourists to visit Bangladesh because it is cheap there!

Fakhruddin Ahmed writes from Princeton, (DS 13 August, 2004) that "Bangladesh is Cheap". As usual, his columns are eminently readable. His discovery that things are cheap in Bangladesh is not uncommon; many others who live in America or Europe are surprised, even mildly amused, when on a short visit here.

Yet, that Bangladesh is cheap is a dubious distinction, one that millions in Bangladesh could do well without. Goods are cheap because labour is even cheaper; workers earn one twentieth or even one fiftieth of what an American doing similar work is paid.

And labour will remain this cheap because global trade, commerce and finance is skewed in favour of the rich; the poor are grateful to have work and earn a pittance; the exchange rate is always tilted to the advantage of the rich countries not by accident but by design thanks to global financial institutions foisted by the rich for the rich. High wages are exclusive privilege of the workers in rich countries. Yes, the poor ( countries) are allowed to beg and borrow to survive ; their survival is essential to serve the rich. The privilege of Americans and others in advanced countries to have unlimited access to cheap goods and services from abroad is guarded as a right and . Think of oil, raw materials, and ores America buys from the rest of the world. It is even going to war to get unfettered access to such things. So, if the millions of Bangladeshi garment workers, mostly young females, had worked normal hours in decent conditions; earned a decent or near decent wage, they would have had a better life just enough to give them human rights; and things would not have been so cheap for visitors to be amused or surprised. Under the world trade order , threats are regularly issued, access to markets restricted, and sanctions are never far away to preserve unfair unequal trade. Indeed, a heavy price is extracted to keep things cheap for the first world and keep the third world in debt that it cannot repay.

Zakir Husain, On e-mail