Home ›› 01 Nov 2021 ›› Opinion
Bangladesh today is on the track to becoming a middle-income nation. Just in 50 years since our independence, we have managed to get ourselves out from poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and achieved economic development in various sectors. This economic development has been possible through diversifying our export products. Jute was our prime good of export and today we export around $1 billion worth of jute products in more than 100 countries in the world. After the War of Independence, our government had to work hard not only to promote Bangladesh as a sovereign country but to find ways to boost the economy by various means.
Many authorities concerned back then strived very hard in order to promote Bangladeshi exportable goods. From diplomats to economists all worked together to promote Bangladeshi products abroad and boost our exports. Then in the 1980s, the country saw the beginning of the exponential growth of the Ready Made Garments or RMG sector. Today our RMG sector is world-renowned and we are one of the top RMG manufacturing countries in the world. Bangladesh holds the record for having the most eco-friendly green garments in the world. Then if we look at the timeline since 2000, with a mixture of good and not-so-good internet access we started to export IT outsourcing services. Experts believe that IT-based services will be the next big foreign earning sector. This is indeed very much promising as our economy is already getting benefited by this export.
The export revenue in the fiscal year 2020-21 has increased by 14.12 per cent compared to the last fiscal. Just before the Covid-19 some of the top economic forums and news agencies were describing us as the next Asian Economic Tiger. Today we have successfully gone ahead of India in terms of GDP. Several economic forecasts suggest we will continue to do so in the coming years. We are the second-largest economy in South Asia with 355 USD billion (2021). In addition to agriculture and remittance from workers abroad, we are witnessing significant growth in the IT sector. Today we export different electrical and electronic appliances as well. It is estimated that Bangladesh will be able to start exporting on a bigger scale different heavy industrial products like steel, tyre, cement etc., soon.
By scouting the Bangladesh Bank official website we can see our main export items and industries are Readymade Garments, Jute and Jute Manufactures, Leather and Leather Manufactures, Fish, Shrimps and Prawns, Home Textile, Vegetable Products, Pharmaceutical Products, Plastic and Plastic Products, Bicycle, Terry Towel, Handicrafts and Petroleum and Petroleum Products. USA, Germany, the UK, Spain, France, Italy, Poland, India, Netherlands, Canada and Japan are major customers of the above-mentioned goods.
As per tojdac.org economic diplomacy is traditionally defined as the decision-making, policy-making and advocating for the sending state’s business interests. Economic diplomacy requires the application for technical expertise which the effects of a country’s economic situation on its political climate and on economic interests. Economic diplomacy is the art of serving economic security and strategic interests of the country by the use of an economic instrument in the conduct of state-to-state relations. Economic diplomacy is designed to influence policy and regulatory decisions of foreign governments, as well as those of international organizations. It goes beyond trade and investment to the resolution of multiple causes of international conflicts. The agenda of economic diplomacy is comprehensive and includes amongst others issues pertaining to foreign trade and import-export relations, promoting national economic interests in other countries, informing and updating potential foreign investors on investment opportunities, negotiating economic and trade agreements on economic and trade cooperation, as well as cooperating with a view to eliminating problematic divergences and harmonizing standards in various sectors (economic, social, environmental, educational etc.).
Five decades ago, Henry Kissinger who was the US Secretary of State during that time, notoriously used the term bottomless basket to describe Bangladesh. We wonder how Henry Kissinger would like to label our economy now? Of course, the fact is in every 50 years, world geography and its politics changes. Today the entire geopolitical scenario has changed compared to what was in 1971. The US back then was allies with Pakistan. Now the US is not, rather China is playing the role of their brothers in arms and their principal economic development partner. We on the other hand, have a great deal of business with the USA. Again, we have a good volume of trade with China as well. We indeed export more to the US than we do to China but China is opening its doors for us. Recently the Ministry of Commerce published a notice where 97 per cent of Bangladeshi products list under DFQF to the Chinese market.
Salman F Rahman, the Private Industry and Investment Adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, is a strong advocate of easing of doing business. He and a few other top officials are seen constantly talking about it in the media or public forums. They have also organized different Bangladesh brand promotion fairs and tours. When ease of doing business becomes better, inevitably we will see new export-oriented products emerging in front of us.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh maintains 36 embassies and 11 high commissions. The actual number of foreign consulates in Bangladesh is not clear, as there are different data on the internet. There are about 190 UN recognised countries in the world and we are exporting to 100 or more of them. We opt to find new ways to open up new embassies in our country.
We need to make sure we develop better trade relations with all these countries, to begin with. We should encourage more countries to open missions in our country. Every embassy has a business section; even a few decades back it was easy to have access to them. It seems despite the impact of the pandemic on the global and the Bangladesh economy, we can bounce back strongly. Despite that, we cannot seat idle and gloat about our achievements. Recently PM Sheikh Hasina has expressed her thoughts on exploring new export markets. This writer believes the best way to explore and create a new export market is to develop better diplomatic trade relationships.
The writer is Editorial Assistant at The Business Post
