Home ›› 09 Jan 2023 ›› Opinion
The entire world is in the throes of profound economic crisis. Be it a major economy or a minor economy – every country is bogged down in economic stagnancy. China that roared like a real tiger with its economy strengthening is now in smoldering crisis. The USA is now an injured tiger that even can’t roar. Its roar sounds like croaking. Russia is waging war to restore its old glory by invading its old territories it lost after the collapse of Soviet social system. If one has a glimpse of newspapers or listen to electronic media reports regularly the picture is evident.
Let’s begin with Pakistan that is now on the verge of collapse with its forex reserve hitting an eight-year low. Its central bank’s reserve plunged to $5.6 billion. Another $5.8 billion held by its commercial banks put the total figure at $11.4 billion with which it can barely spend on three weeks of imports. Let alone its political instability it is now desperately trying to keep its economy afloat. It is just a matter of time to see how long it can resist its complete collapse like Sri Lanka.
Britain, the first country in the world that carried out the industrial revolution from where it spread to other parts of the world, is not also out of this all-encompassing financial crisis. A recent report says its new car sales have dropped to 30-year low which is good enough for anyone to understand how deep financial crisis the country is passing through.
With the trade with China slowing down German export slumped in November. Its outgoing trade with the European Union (EU) also fell by 73 billion Euros as the bloc suffered an economic slowdown due to high price of energy and the Russia-Ukraine war. Totally German imports fell by 3.3 percent to 124.4 billion Euros with a 7.8 percent drop in goods from China. The ongoing weakness in export, think economists, suggests that recession fear is real. The German government has forecast that the economy to shrink by 0.4 percent in 2023.
In Egypt people are seething with anger over the severe dollar crunch and soaring food prices. As people are struggling to survive the Egyptian government asked people for an alternative, cheap protein source – ‘chicken feet, good for the body and budget’. Sounds ridiculous? Not at all! At least not to us, as we were also once advised to eat potato as a source of protein in place of rice when the price of rice went up exponentially. The hardship is so severe that the country had to ask for a $3 billion loan programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Under the IMF pressure Egypt is now going for its long-delayed privatization scheme which will eventually put the lives of Egyptians in more peril.
Amazon, the online giant that employs 1.5 million people from around the globe, is now going for a cut more than 18, 000 of its employees to save costs. BBC in its news terms it ‘Amazon on diet’ mockingly. It said after a booming business the organization is now experiencing a slow sale.
These are just few examples to mirror the real face of the countries around the world. Thinkers, political and business analysts and even economists are holding the Russian-Ukraine war and the Covid-19 pandemic responsible for the deepening crisis the world is facing today. But if there had not been any pandemic and Ukraine-Russia war could it have been averted? Of course, the pandemic has slowed down economic activities but can we solely put the blame on the Covid-19. It has only escalated the predicament while the Ukraine-Russia war was the outcome of uneven economic development and wealth distribution that are responsible for what we are experiencing today.
We don’t have any war here in our country. But what’s wrong with it? Is the economic chaos has been caused by the war or pandemic? Long before the pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war the economic fabrics began to fall apart as we have failed to stop widespread corruption, nepotism, money laundering and so on so forth. We could easily ward off and prevent the effects of war. Obviously, pandemic-induced crisis would have taken time to heal. But at least we would not have sunk in the quagmire of such all-swallowing crises.
We have easily been affected because our country is largely dependent on imports. The country that has to depend on imports for its essential commodities easily succumbs to any kind of incident like the Russia-Ukraine war. Since our independence we have never ever attached any importance to strengthen and embolden our economy based upon our own resources.
We have our resources in our nature. There are tourist spots, including the longest Cox’s Bazar sea beach, around the country that can easily be turned into lovely places to draw crowed from around the world. We have our resources at the bottom of our Bay of Bengal.
Our sea could be the sources of fisheries and aquaculture, natural resources and energy, tourism and shipping. Maritime economy can easily be strengthened by developing a fish industry in the country. Such industry is yet to develop to full extent in our country. Once done, it can immensely contribute to the economy by earning foreign currency bolstering our waning central reserve. Bangladesh can excel in its fish trade. Even the country has the potential to compete with three other countries – Thailand, India and China – in fish trade in South Asia.
The bottom of the Bay of Bengal is thought to be rich in many kinds of natural resources. It is considered the treasure trove of mineral sands. One of them is monazite, a radioactive material that can be used in nuclear reactor to generate energy.
We have also our manpower that is mainly employed in foreign lands. If we used them properly and aptly we could easily avoid many external hurdles that sometimes makes our lives difficult because of our dependency on others for a lot of essential products. Waves of world financial crisis will come one after another without our being aware of them. But if we can make the best use of our potential we don’t have to seek help of others. A self-reliant country has nothing to worry about.
The writer is a journalist. He can be contacted at maksud.i.rahaman@gmail.com
