Dear Bhai Cyrus, If I may share my views on the issue of prospective sectors back home, that seems to be on the focus in our last postings; here are few points on an encouraging note – BD is an emerging economy and there appears to be many prospective sectors. What interests you most should be the matter. Good professional analyses should help determine the feasible industry. While doing that it would be pertinent to consider the rapid shift of 'economy of scale' in many potential sectors that attracting huge investments. BD already have world class glass, ceramic, sugar, cement, steel and pharma cos in terms of quality as well as volume. Before or even after you decide where to invest kindly browse through Amartya Sen's Noble winning book, "supply and demand" contention in your postings of two, might invite a resolve as well as other social factors for an economy to sustain. Considering the general economic level, I would say millions are looking up to those who can invest and employ. The entrepreneurs as well need to give a fresh look, Jeffrey Sacks's Clinical Economics or even our Professor Yunus's Social Business paradigm, worth pondering. "Greed is good" is a professed virtue where you live, but the BD Diasporas from USA or West need to look beyond. A perfect blend that is not only good for them but can help lot more of those who need to move from subsistence. Your success is cherished by them and myself. Take care. Haque
--- On Mon, 2/2/09, Cyrus <thoughtocrat@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Cyrus <thoughtocrat@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [ALOCHONA] What is your advice to Sheikh Hasina ?
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, 2 February, 2009, 9:47 PM
Mr. Haque: Thank you for your very well-thought and sound arguments, and I am completely in agreement with you. I do have, however, a few more additions to what you said: 1. Since BD is heavily in debt at this moment, I agree that economic growth needs to be organic, from within. This would require long-term investments and new financial tools. So, creative thinking is a must. Looking at the composition of AL government, I am somewhat skeptical that creative economic policies would arrive any time soon. 2. The economic policy ideas that I have proposed are somewhat foreign to BD, but they are not new. It is true that it is relatively easier to implement these policies in Western democracies. But if we don't want to learn from successful economies from the West or in Asia (e.g. China, India, Taiwan), we would have a difficult time catching up. So, I suggested policies that would help BD economy to grow from within, without too much dependence on foreign aid or debt. 3. Enacting new laws is the easy part in any state. Enforcement is a completely different issue. If BD wants to become a healthy democracy and compete in a global economy, it must create mechanisms to enforce laws and not just create them. 4. Privatization of industries, supporting entrepreneurial ventures, as well as creating environment for private capital to grow would require AL government to guarantee/secure investment, give tax breaks to investors, and most importantly, protect individual and business investors from "chandabaz", kick-backs, bribes, etc. AL govt. needs to do that with an iron hand and restore investors' confidence. Until that environment is created, and investors feel secured to make investments in our local economies, no amount of law would be able to turn the tide. As a matter of fact, I've been trying to start a venture in BD, with support from foreign partners, and so far the responses from regulatory bodies in BD have not been very encouraging. But that's a different story. 5. Finally, I totally agree that AL needs to invest in energy. BD used to be called the "Greenest Country in the World", quite literally. However, our environmental record is abysmal. This is an opportunity for the AL government to create our energy infrastructure that would tackle environmental problems, create new jobs, and secure our future. We have local technologies available (e.g. hydro power, wind power, solar energy) that we can utilize. Government needs to incubate these technologies so that our energy needs are met. Hopefully, the leadership of AL and BNP would retire within the next decade and a new group of visionary thinkers would emerge to take BD to the next phase. Successful economies in Asia have grown because they developed "Growth Plans" (South Korea has a 250 year economic growth plan!!), and I am of the opinion that we need to do the same. Changes can be made along the way, but the goal is to create a prosperous BD within the next 30 years is not unachievable. Only time will tell. Looking forward to your input. Thanks, Cyrus
From: Mohd. Haque <haquetm83@yahoo. com>
To: alochona@yahoogroup s.com
Sent: Monday, February 2, 2009 8:22:41 AM
Subject: Re: [ALOCHONA] What is your advice to Sheikh Hasina ?
| Dear alochok Cyrus, Whatever might be the way, we all wish good for our country and pin our hope on our leadership to deliver that for our poor and oppressed people. With such a huge mandate if AL or Sh. Hasina fails we all will fail, our people will fail. After five years Sh. Hasina may go for a retirement in Miami beach but 160 million will remain destitute as before which would compound with her failure. Let me begin with your contention about Alochona – I do not understand what happen to it, may be it has caught up with its hidden politics or less active for some other reasons. Hope it starts again to encourage healthy debates. I have to apologise being a non economics student, I can only make suggestions from common sense. What is needed most is to create a foundation for economics to work. Basic infrastructure and rule of law. Fundamental is Economy should create more jobs, that's employments, means employers, means factories for productions and sectors to provide value added services. Heart of these are energy- human energy and chemical energy to run manufacturing lines and produce services. Electricity/ energy should be number one priority. Fixing the Dhaka university or the total education system should be the second most priority. Then comes the transport networks and port facilities. To do all these she needs to emphasise on rule of law, without applicable laws no one can employ their free franchise as we have been witnessing since the birth of our nation, you need to grease, lobby or waste in unscrupulous means to get a small thing done. Population and environment control she/our nation can not set aside uncontrolled. To get all these done, requisite investment should be made. And getting the precious investment is no big deal(?). Perhaps your suggestions on this reflects the system where you live, it may or may not be our resolve. But, within the existing capacity certainly government can increase its own resources and increase development budget through mobilisation of private capital enacting and applying yet some good laws. All it requires to enhance its legal and technical capacity building to negotiate with variety of equity and capital sources that are strong in the market. World Bank, IMF or ADB can not be our hope but certainly, being a share holder we can obtain a better deal provided we do not look at only tomorrow or next election and we should learn (rather faster) to put a cap on their foria marketing technics. Only her determination to do good for our people can make good things to happen.
--- On Sun, 25/1/09, Cyrus <thoughtocrat@ yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Cyrus <thoughtocrat@ yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [ALOCHONA] What is your advice to Sheikh Hasina ?
To: alochona@yahoogroup s.com
Date: Sunday, 25 January, 2009, 8:44 PM
You know, it's amusing to read all these self-righteous and somewhat sanctimonious advises for the PM, but I hardly read about any useful policy advises these days. I miss the old days of Alochona! Since, no one is starting a policy discussion, and just engaging in petty moral virtues, here are few advises for the PM. ------ "It's the Economy, Stupid" - We have double digit inflation and unemployment, almost asinine monetary policies, and no visionary trade policies. The economic policies of the last 15 years has been such that every govt. only looked ahead at the re-election, and not the rejuvenation of the economy for the long haul. In the short-run everything looked peachy, but as Keynes once said, "in the long run, everyone is dead". Here are some "common sense" ways to deal with the economic fiasco that we are in a) Audit the national budget and immediately eliminate wasteful programs and departments. Create a national budget, as well as, divisional budgets in collaboration with the opposition MPs, so that their districts and divisions are also represented. This will give the new admin an idea as to where and how the money is being generated and spent. b) Pass laws to create a stock exchange for each division, so that local businesses can go public. We already have Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges, but other divisions need to do that as well. These smaller stock exchanges can trade newer financial tools, such as government bonds, municipal bonds, small-cap companies, etc., who don't necessarily have the market power to go national. c) If I am not mistaken, we have a fixed exchange rate in BD. Floating exchange rate needs to be the official name of the game, and that will re-valuate the currency and its abysmal performance. d) Since our system is lacking serious "cash flow", so to speak, one idea is to generate enough cash through a social security system. A Social Security system that guarantees retirement payment, regardless of the market condition, is a tremendous and powerful way to encourage savings and generate funds. But collecting social security also requires personal income tax and corporate tax collection, which the govt. has been reluctant to collect. We have been living on borrowed money and to feed our hunger, the central bank has stupidly flooded the market with newly printed taka (hence the inflation!). Printing new money must stop immediately. There are plenty of ways to establish a new tax code and enforcement mechanism. Tax revenue, plus voluntary social security deduction would ensure that such funds are used in proper ways. Of course, we are notoriously distrustful of our government. So, in a self-policing move, a law needs to be passed that would ensure that any fraud of the social security fund would constitute "treason" and "adverse to public benefit", punishable by life imprisonment and other penalties. Feel free to make examples out of a few politicians. I am sure you would find a few of those greedy bastards in both parties. I digress... e) Destruction of public property, whether by your cadres or the opposition, is a felony in all civilized nations. It is a shame that even today, we stay silent about riotous mob, pillaging through public and private properties and setting them on fire to prove their points. Make it a national priority that anyone caught with destruction of public or private property would receive severe punishment. See how it works out. You just might be able to save a few hundred million dollars a year. f) I think, this the most important move that any administration could make to turn around the economy - CONSOLIDATE PARA-MILITARY FORCES. We have way too many para-military forces on our payroll, but not enough police officers to keep civic order. I personally think that the ineffective police department needs to be re-organized under the leadership of the BDR, which has a long track record of protecting our borders and keeping civic order whenever necessary. This would immensely grow the capacity of our police, and BDR would be ordered to take on the role of the police as well. Petty crime is still a problem in BD, and the police has proven to be ineffective to deal with this. I don't believe that RAB was an effective force. It is a bunch of trigger happy, licensed goons, fashioned after the "moral police", who feel that they are above the law. We need a disciplined, combat ready, civic police who can keep order and protect the civilians. Not wild wild west style commandos with a license to kill. I can go on with the ideas for the PM...but I am hungry and must sign off...Let's begin the discussion here. Looking forward to hear more ideas from other readers. Let's have a constructive discourse... Thanks, Cyrus
From: Mohammad Hossain <MHossain@YorkTech. com>
To: alochona@yahoogroup s.com
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 11:15:26 AM
Subject: RE: [ALOCHONA] What is your advice to Sheikh Hasina ?
I have a few advice for Hasina: 1. Please stop killing, maiming and up-rooting your political opponents and adversaries; the tide of time will turn before you know it. 2. You are a public servant, the public is not your servant, and you have been elected to serve the public; not your friends, cronies and relatives. 3. Forgiveness is a greater virtue than revenge 4. Don't mix business and pleasure – this can get you in a lot of trouble fast 5. Keep your election promises as much as the available resources permit 6. You are not so important that you have to win every argument. Agree to
disagree. The last one is the most important advice. That's all folks! Nurul Hossain USA From: alochona@yahoogroup s.com [mailto:alochona@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Md.Hasibul Hassan
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 2:49 PM
To: zoglul@hotmail. co..uk; mbimunshi@gmail. com; rehman.mohammad@ gmail.com; mahmudurart@ yahoo.com; farhadmazhar@ hotmail.com; premlaliguras@ hotmail.com; dhakamails@yahoogro ups.com; khabor@yahoogroups. com; alochona@yahoogroup s.com; bdresearchers@ yahoogroups. com; bangla-vision@ yahoogroups. com; mouchakaydheel@ yahoo.com; odhora@yahoogroups. com; ayeshakabir@ yahoo.com; sayantha15@yahoo. com; shahin72@gmail. com; minarrashid@ yahoo.com; history_islam@ yahoogroups. com; jangoonetilleke@ aol.com; editorazad@gmail. com; jason@prio.no
Subject: [ALOCHONA] What is your advice to Sheikh Hasina ?
What is your advice to Sheikh Hasina ?
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