Cost of red tape
The cost of red tape is up in the UK since 1997 to Pound Sterling [PS] 30 billion. The main culprit is alleged to be the EU Regulations. The UK trade deficit with EU is PS300 billion, supporting 5 million jobs in EU, according to a letter in a recent issue of a London journal.
If that be the case in a developed country, then the scale of systems loss in bureaucracy in the LDCs in the third world could be imagined. Today Dhaka has no scope for reducing the red tape losses, as neutrality in civil service has evaporated due to political pressures; and neutral civil servants have no face value (column in the Strategic Issue of The Daily Star, Dec 24).
Add the scale of corruption proliferating in the changing society in metropolis Dhaka (and elsewhere). The fundamental question arises: how this young nation could get out of this vicious trap? It is apparently beyond political solution (the innovators cannot be the solvers).
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.