Bangladesh is one of the fastest-growing economies and development miracles in the world. For the continuity and sustainability of this success, it requires undertaking multiple activities to vibrantly activate the economy and society as well as to move further at a justifiable speed in the future.
Bangladesh has already achieved the middle-income country (MIC) status with its impressive track record of growth and poverty, demographic dividend and readymade garment exports.
Now the priority of the government after achieving a MIC tag is to reach the level of a developed economy. Bangladesh is set to become the 24th largest economy in the world by 2036 because of its macroeconomic stability, rising RMG and ability to attract foreign investment.
Further, the country envisions becoming a developed nation by 2041 for which huge development activities have been initiated.
Public policies are the key strategies to translate government vision into reality. The government needs to set development priorities and align with the policymaking process, from agenda-setting to implementation.
Public policies emanated from the government decisions are the guidelines to guide people’s behavior so that these significantly contribute to the country’s overall cyclical development by creating an enabling environment.
A paradigm shift in public policies is to move from theoretical views to practical guidelines suitably fit to make a nation significant in the global market.
In Bangladesh, traditional public administration has been replaced with new public management, which means the re-inventing of the government, and introducing new forms of governance like e-governance where people and their benefits are placed at the center.
Today’s graduates of academic institutes and young civil servants could be the strategic leaders who could lead Bangladesh in the coming years.
For achieving a developed nation vision, the government has to launch mega projects and multiple economic activities, involving huge investment.
Investment in big projects, of course, is required. But ensuring quality is a big challenge, which will ultimately affect the total development of the country.
It is seen that projects and programs in Bangladesh have turned out poorly for which the Prime Minister has shown her dissatisfaction several times.
Blame-game among the different agencies further delays the process. This poses a big challenge for the government, which necessitates not only coming out with effective policies but also implementing them effectively.
But one has to ruminate that good governance and accountability are critical for economic growth, health, education, high-quality public services and inequality. And these issues are significantly important for becoming a developed nation.
Since most of us are conditioned by our worldviews and experiences, it limits us to foresee the complete picture with possible consequences.
Scholars believe that policies need to be well-explained and for this, the role of information media is very crucial as they need to inform and analyze it well.
Most often bureaucrats are criticized for their resistance to change and this must be countered by taking people-oriented policy initiatives. Reforming bureaucracy to prepare public administrators for the change is likewise important.
Bangladesh has over the years faced many challenges that have impeded its growth story. The challenges include the influx of Rohingyas, the slow adaptation of technology, relocation of business, and the impetus to commercial activities.
The pandemic has further slowed the process by impacting every aspect of socio-economic development. Some challenges can be addressed nationally but some are global, based on mutually agreed bilateral and multi-lateral collaborations.
The gravity of the problem dictates the adoption of different strategies in finding a better solution.
Since disparity remains in the country despite remarkable progress, creating a just society is believed as a major challenge for materializing vision 2041.
Economists noticed that the richer section gets higher amounts of wealth from the development activities while the poor group gets insignificant funds at a higher cost.
The Global Wealth Report 2021 indicates that 21,399 people of Bangladesh own wealth ranging between $1 and $5 million although there was no millionaire in 2010.
And the surging rate of becoming wealthy people is over 8000 per year. Academics termed it as fragile justice, which may slow the process of development and dawdle the period of achieving developed nation vision.
Today’s graduates of academic institutes and young civil servants could be the strategic leaders who could lead Bangladesh in the coming years.
In order to lead the nation, the country needs committed, morally strong, and an out of box thinkers, who are decisive and resilient in their approach.
And for this, the country needs to invest in quality education as well as in training. Moreover, those Bangladeshis who are contributing to the development of other countries can be requested to come back to their motherland for working for its development.
Meanwhile, it is also needed to create an enabling environment so that returning scholars and experts can effectively utilize their talents to the fullest.
Venality and money laundering are the other big threats that thwart the development of the country. The recent report of Global Financial Interiority said that Bangladesh lost about 74.43 billion USD in nine years from 2009 to 2018 from misinvoicing of values of exported and imported goods by traders.
The government needs to be well-equipped to translate such initiatives into reality and make the public sector capable of taking a lead role regionally and globally. For doing so, development priorities must be set today in order to get the sweeter results in 2041.
It is blamed that they did it to evade tax and move money out of the country. Although Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BIFU) has framed an anti-money laundering strategy and taken a number of actions, the country did not receive the result as expected. Economists emphasized on implementation of joined-up strategies to be taken by BIFU and the National Board of Revenue.
Thinking big and acting bigger should be the key philosophy of tomorrow’s leaders and by which public policies ought to be designed.
In that case, the public leaders of tomorrow need to think globally and act locally. However, the initiatives, which are intended to adopt, must be economically viable, environmentally fit, and acceptable by the beneficiaries for whom these are taken.
Moreover, policies need to be influenced by next-generation public administration philosophy where the happiness of citizens is the main aim, and which requires a shift from the traditional policy outputs.
It also needs to be realized that governments alone cannot do everything. It calls for collaborative governance where inputs of all relevant actors are taken into account for the government for policy formulation as well as its implementation.
Government endeavors so far have been quite commendable. There is no doubt about this. However, the question is whether these initiatives are really sufficient enough to effectively lead Bangladesh in the next two decades, and are we in a position to set a comprehensive plan for short, mid and long-term mission to achieve the vision covering all sectors i.e. education, agriculture, housing, environment, water, health, infrastructure, energy and power, industry, service, employment, a safety net for elderly and disabled, drugs and narcotics, and the like.
The government needs to be well-equipped to translate such initiatives into reality and make the public sector capable of taking a lead role regionally and globally. For doing so, development priorities must be set today in order to get the sweeter results in 2041.
The writer is a faculty member at Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre
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