Dip in Norwegian aid

Lack of good governance, law and order downslide, slow implementation of development projects, corruption et al are the vices that led to such a decision on the part of the Norwegian authorities. Earlier, we had seen our shipping minister getting embroiled in a bitter row with the Danish authorities over a deal that led to the suspension of a big amount of aid meant for the shipping sector.

Topics like poor governance, slide in law and order and corruption are catchy agendas for seminars and symposiums. There the bigwigs in the ruling alliance stress the importance of good governance, better law and order and fair play. But situation on the ground remains unchanged as ever. Worse still, they are the ones who make most of these aids, we already have seen huge amount of money 'going down the footpath' in the name of Dhaka city beautification project.

Due to diplomatic norms, the donors cannot say directly much about these, whenever they say (as in the case of Danish-Akbar affair) we vehemently accuse them for breaching the code of conduct and bringing the image of Bangladesh in disrepute. So the inevitable outcome is the slash in aid.

Aid has been cut significantly after this BNP govt assumed power, while foreign investment is also becoming a mirage. Our finance minister is talking about a self-reliant economy without any 'begging' from the foreigners. The interest rate cut, imposition of newer taxes on the meagre income group are serving the purpose of increasing the perks of the MPs. The common people are the ones losing on all fronts.