JANUARY 10, 2016: DAILY SUN
According to the observation of the World Bank based on various socio-economic indicators, Bangladesh has been upgraded to a country of lower-middle- income. This has been possible only for the workforce of the country working home and abroad and at the same time innovative, enterprising and hard working entrepreneurs who have, so far, kept the economic cycle moving at a higher cost combating natural calamity, severe political unrest, bureaucratic complexity, corruption, red tapism in starting business, insufficient infrastructure, shortage of power supply and so on. Contribution of political leaders is not worth mentioning in this matter. However, sometimes they act as a big obstacle to the sustainable development of the country.
The people of Bangladesh are also very much resilient and remain satisfied getting even a tiny amount of return. They are very much romantic as well. Because during the country-wide black out (power failure) earlier this year no incident of robbery, looting did happen as we find in the western civilized countries during the same situation. Instead, they enjoyed the moon lit night, the light of candle and the beauty of darkness for sometime.
Bangladesh is now a role model and miracle in its journey towards a middle-income nation despite political uncertainty and natural calamities. Now in almost all world famous school of business and social sciences “Bangladesh Studies” is a must.
Recently the Washington based research organization “Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI) published ‘Global Entrepreneurship Index’ where Bangladesh has been upgraded 5 steps from its position in the previous year. Though the overall position of Bangladesh is not satisfactory, the country is obviously uplifting its position. In terms of mentality, skill and determination the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs are not lagging far behind from other countries, because they always combat more severe natural and man-made disaster, corruption, red tapism than any other country.
Readymade Garments (RMG), textile and knitting industry covers most of our export earnings. Entrepreneurs of textile and RMG of our country always look for the best opportunities. They always keep exploring and dominating the market at any cost. Therefore, they remain very much competitive all the time in the global market. With the experience of almost 40 years the RMG and textile industry have produced thousands of skilled workers. With those skilled persons- hundreds of compliant and world standard garments factory are being set up in the country. During that period both the sectors had to face various derogatory and unfavourable conditions created by the buyers as well as by the competitor countries. The Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashion tragedy- where more than 1200 workers were killed or burnt alive are two big tragedies for the country and for the RMG sector. However, it has also brought a huge opportunity to make us more compliant in RMG industry set up in order to bring us to the global standard in terms of working environment, developing skills, professionalism, ensuring labour rights and so on.
Even a decade ago almost all the fabrics and accessories used in RMG industry were to be imported from abroad, especially from China. But today Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and investors have gained the capability to produce huge volume of global standard fabrics and to set up billion dollar huge projects and within the next few years the RMG and composite industry could procure most of their fabrics, accessories and yearn from local markets.
Now Bangladesh is not only producing casual RMG, but also trying to capture the market of high end products and world fashion market. Moreover, they are capable of creating trend in the world fashion market.
Not only in the RMG and textile industry but also in various technical and service oriented jobs Bangladesh is producing skilled human resources and they are applying their talents all over the world. Almost 10 million labourers, engineers, doctors, teachers, scientists, researchers are serving all over the world.
Bangladesh is not only exporting construction workers to the Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia but also many qualified Civil Engineers graduated from various universities of the country who are assisting high profile engineers in changing the skyline of Dubai, Qatar, Kuala Lumpur and many other cities. Many doctors, teachers and engineers are also serving in the European countries and in the USA. Many Bangladeshi engineers are working in many famous automobile manufacturing industries in Europe and America holding many key positions.
A significant number of Bangladeshi computer engineers are also working in many IT industries, such as Yahoo, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Cisco and so on. Most of them graduated from various universities of the country.
Many global companies are currently headed by many Indian CEOs. For example- Satya Nadella in Microsoft, Indra Nooyi in Pepsico, Rakesh Kapoor in Reckitte Benckiser, Ajay Banga in Master Card, Piyush Gupth in DBS Holdings, Shantan Narayan in Adobe and Sundar Pichai in Google. Similarly we are very much optimistic that in the near future we will see many Bangladeshi CEOs heading many global companies.
Many Bangladeshi educationists are also working as teachers in various world famous universities like MIT, Harvard and Oxford. Similarly a number of researchers are working in many world famous laboratories in the USA, Europe and showing their talents through many breakthrough discoveries and inventions. This number is increasing day by day.
In spite of being a Less Developed Country (LDC) the pharmaceutical industry has gained the status of many developed countries in terms of quality and capability. Local pharmaceutical companies are fulfilling 95% of local demand and exporting medicine in various countries worth millions of dollars. The growth of export is increasing by double digit each year. Recent extension of waiver on drug patent for LDCs up to 2033 will make this growth steadier. Our entrepreneurs, pharmacists and technicians can now compete with any multinational pharmaceutical company.
In the healthcare services our country is achieving global standard in quality and service. Once, many people would go to India, Thailand, and Singapore for open heart surgery, kidney, liver and bone marrow transplantation. But now those people are availing all of those treatments confidently in the local hospitals because of the satisfactory rate of success.
Our entrepreneurs are also showing higher success in the production of quality foods and beverage, ceramics, leather products, plastic products, building technology and many other small and medium enterprises. Many companies are exporting foods and beverage products even in many European countries.
Our country is also a breeding ground of world class leaders. Many Bangladeshi nationals are becoming members and policy makers of many traditional political parties in many developed countries. In Britain four MPs have been elected as member of the parliament. This is very much remarkable that Bangladeshi British Labour Party MP, Rushanara Ali is being considered by the British political analyst as one of the promising leaders who deserves to be the future prime minister of Britain.
Skilled Human Resources (HR) and entrepreneurs with innovative mind are the vital forces for development. If there are more entrepreneurs in a country, that country will inevitably become very much developed. The development of HR depends on the scope of quality education, easy access to higher education, availability of technical education, application of IT in every sector. Similarly for the development of entrepreneurship the government and the policy makers must provide them with sufficient infrastructure, various incentives, good governance, hassle-free process of starting business, political stability subsidizing them as long-term and profitable investment. Bangladesh should focus on those key issues for achieving global norms in entrepreneurship and HR development.
© Copyright: Reserved by the writer (Noore Alam Siddiqui)
