Let's love this country

This is my posting about not only blind illogical patriotism(which is not bad by any sense) but also an analytic point of view of this country's economic linkage with the logistic point of view. (Wow ! those are pretty weighty words...pardon me for my arrogance for trying to be an economist but its all about clear vision and common sense)

Bangladesh, one of the fastest growing countries in the world. Bangladesh ranked as the 43rd largest economy in the world in 2010 in PPP terms and 57th largest in nominal terms, among the Next Eleven or N-11(wikipedia). Being geologically in an ideal place to become a business hub is another stronghold for Bangladesh to flourish. The two giants of Asia- India and China are very close to Bangladesh giving us a tremendous opportunity to establish third party non-biased play grounds for giant multi-nationals. A saturated market like Bangladesh where 1% of people purchasing any product will make a small industry to stand on its feet has so much possibilities and potentialities to pull itself up. For the last two decades, our economic growth has been steady and although the back-stabbing and barking at each other carries on among the political parties, the private sector is the main juice-provider for our economy. No matter which government comes in power, we will go on and on...unless some "numbnut" thinks he knows economics better than anyone else and axes down our economic growth by his own.

Now I will share some of my thoughts (entirely personal points of view and no point to align with any other political or religious itching !)associated with few ideas from favorite teacher's lecture on economics.  Lets' take Biman as an example...World's most efficient flag carrier which has such a model of aircraft that the manufacturers wanted that to be preserved in the aeronautics museum...even private airlines have better carriers and yet we are still trying to pour down investments in this hole. It has been a loss project since I was a kid and had it ever seen the light of profit or would it ?- if you can answer that question, you will get a nobel prize ! Why not  stop and ground biman? Let's patch up with international giants and lease out our routes. Make Dhaka one of their home grounds so that Dhaka airport would be a transit for international flights of that carrier. Not to mention the airport will be upgraded by the means of the standard. Let's make Chittagong another carrier's home ground. Cut the loses you are already putting in here and try something different. Make these carriers have our name or branding on their aircraft, the emotional or cultural bonding issue is solved (I don't understand, why does these even mix up with corporate business?). The long flights coming from UK or US will be delighted to have Dhaka as a base and then also targeting to India and China routes to become less expensive while more easier to operate. Frankly how many of you will choose Biman to travel abroad???

People in the country were so much worried about transit a few months back. Yes, I admit we don't have the infrastructure to support that and we have a very expert group of people to make the most easiest thing go wrong in a very smooth way-not to mention they were eyeing to make the transit free of cost...Well, do we really need transit infrastructure? or do we already have and need that to be repaired a bit? Let's think it in a different way. Look at the map of Bangladesh. You see a river starting from the very top of the map ended just straight down to bay of Bengal. Why not use the river route? stop the road transportation and make these rivers to the routes to transport goods. A very nice example could be Panama. Thinking about financial strength? well let's not aim for new airports and aim for this instead. 

The Bangladeshis are so much into road transport, which is risky-unreliable due to timing-costly and above all limited in cargo. Then why not promoting railway? After the British empire fallen down in this region the only new tracks put down were when the Bangabandhu Jamuna Bridge was constructed... Can you even imagine?!And after that, all smoke and dust... we even have a minister in that regards for crying out loud !!! Railroads have been established as the prime goods transport way all around and we are still relying on trucks to fill up 3 storied high and move like a bicycle in the highways all night long to reach the destination when the driver is sleeping behind the wheel. No matter we have so many accidents...more slow moving trucks on the road create more pressure-more damaged roads-more blocks while the passenger carriers suffer to overcome that.

One last small point, last but not least. As all through my post i have been emphasizing on economic growth related transportation and logistics, i also avoided major passenger transport intentionally. 'Coz, we have tax raised on public transport and lowered on private transport vehicles. So why are more interested to buy a car rather than being an investor and buying a taxi. For an example: a private 2nd hand car costs 5/6 lac while CNG autorickshaw costs 11lac...(including all documents). And yet another point- The VVIPs of the country should use helicopters to travel coz blocking any part of the country makes the region suffer for atleast 4/5 hours before coming to normal state. Isn't that costlier than their travelling??? 

This post was entirely based on my points of view and no data or web based resource or research. So anyone trying to point my errors would have to keep that in mind as well. But above all I am here to welcome your criticism...

-Scion Anjir

31.5.2012