Relations between Bangla desh and Sweden began on a firm, friendly footing right from the start. Convergence of views on wide-ranging issues, from non-alignment to hu/nan rights, helped the growth of bilateral ties over the past two decades. At the same time Sweden, a country with a strong social-democratic tradi-tion, has proved to be a solid partner in Bangladesh's deve lopment efforts. The pattern of assistance has changed over the years, with Bangladesh exporting increasing volumes of goods, particularly garme-nts, while the Stockholm government channels aid directly to areas where it feels the need is most acute — health, education and rural employment.

Not surprisingly Sweden's ambassador in Dhaka is a man with considerable experience in development work, as well as being an economist. On the occasion of Sweden's National Day on June 6. Daily Star Assistant Editor Sabir Mustafa went along for a coffee and a conversation with ambassador Carl Olof Cederblad.

Daily Star: What role do you think Sweden can play tn the social and economic development of Bangladesh? Economic aid is obviously one crucial area where you have made an impact, but is there scope for cooperation in other areas?

Carl Olof Cederblad: Well, we are involved tn a lot of development cooperation programmes. It started right from the beginning (after Bangladesh gained independence). and at the moment the sia*. 4bs programme is around 92 crore Taka per year. We have targeted our efforts mainly on rural poor people, especially women, and we have concentrated on three special areas — primary education, health and rural employment. We carry out these programmes through government agencies but also with the help of other donors, and also through focal NGOs. We are one of the biggest supporters of the Grameen Bank.

DS By that you mean financial backing ...

COC: Yes, financial support. These are very necessary parts for a country's development. People need to be healthy, they need employment especially in rural areas, and the country needs to be able to provide education for all.

Then of course we try to work in the area of trade and industry. The trade balance at the moment is very much in favour of Bangladesh. Sweden exports mainly machinery for industries, and nothing of that is financed from the aid budget. ft is purely commercial.

DS: Are all imports from Sweden done on a commercial basis ?

COC: Yes, all commercial. We have no what they call import support" component in our aid programme. We had that before but we found that it was more useful and appropriate to concentrate on the three areas I mentioned earlier.

Then of course, we have some cooperation in the industrial sector like joint ventures

such as Dhaka Match. IABB in Chittagong etc. Just a few days back I was at the opening of a (joint venture) company called Vac Pac Services Bangladesh Ltd, and they specialise in vacuum packaging of garment products. That's a new thing and I think it's an example of how a small Industry, using high-technology such as machines to do vacuum packaging, can find profit in an area that is essential for Bangladesh. Packaging in plastic means Bangladeshi garments for exports will have lower volume, saving shipping costs, and also keep the product cleaner.

I think In the long-run Bangladesh will have to produce all the things it is importing for the garments industry. 1 mean, quality fabrics can be easily made in Bangladesh. And I think it will come. Garments is really the first broad industrialisation process in this country, in that you employ a lot of people, especially women, and you train a lot of people In management and export handling, which is very useful. You also have the jute industry which is very old, but it is very difficult to see a bright future for it at present

DS: The number of Bangladeshi students studying in Sweden is probably not very high. although we do come across one every now and then. Is there much interaction between the two education ministries? Is there much scope for things like student exchanges?

COC: Not very much, I must say. There are several hundred Bangladeshis in Sweden but many of them are political refugees. There are some among them that went to Sweden as students, but it is very difficult. You have to stay there at least one year to learn Swedish first. That's absolutely essential. We are a little provincial in that sense, that we don't have enough people for really international universities. There are some courses, of course, that are taught in English but most are in Swedish.

DS: As you said, your development activities centre around health and education. Now. do you run your own projects or do you finance projects run by others?

COC: We finance projects, and a fairly large number of them. We support a lot of women development activities. human rights activities. Small programmes, but substantial numbers.

DS: Is there any move by the Bangladesh governjnent or the chambers of commerce here to increase business cooperation and Joint ventures?

COC: Now, from the Bangladeshi side, they are of course eager to get joint ventures but from the Swedish side it is very difficult to find people who want to come over here. I think at the moment, the interest among Swedish companies Is towards the European common market. They want to be Inside the common market, and of course now Eastern Europe is also coming up. When Swedish companies do look this way. they look more at South-East Asia, because they have a more developed infrastructure, but it is more difficult here.

DS: But given all the difficulties. would you say we are doing well in so far as Joint ventures are concerned?

COC: Well, I wouldn't say you are doing well because this Dhaka Match is a disaster. Its difficult to say why it isn't operative. It has a tough trade union, and the management seems quite unable to overcome its problems and it's making losses, and losses and losses. And of course, the end result may be that Swedish Match will leave it. So that is not a good success story.

I think the little electronics factory in Chittagong Export Processing Zone is a success story. They are making good money. This is partly because of the facilities at CEPZ, and also because of good management. But foreign investors do face problems here, with trade unions, with difficult legal procedures etc. And then there is the problem with Bangladesh's image abroad as a disaster-prone country, which does not help business prospects.

But on the other hand, I am optimistic about Bangladesh. I think there will be better business here. May be It will come more from Japan, China, Korea, who are closer to your markets and so on, that's the way It will start before you have Americans and Europeans. You can see the trend already at the CEPZ where there arc a lot of Japanese and Korean firms.

DS: Is there any political cooperation between Sweden and Bangladesh, say at the United Nations or other international forums?

COC: Yes, you could say that we have very much the same views when we face Issues In the sphere of the United Nations. We have very often supported the least developed countries/ and Bangladesh plays a great role. By the way, we are going to abolish all quotas and restrictions on textiles import into Sweden from July' 1 of this year. We have always been at forefront of the demand to have all multi-fibre agreements abolished. But we had already abolished quotas for Bangladesh, because of its LDC status.

Sweden is non-aligned; we have close cooperation with all our neighbours and we are going to join the common market I am a great believer in regional cooperation, and if SAARC could do more than It

is at present, then that would really open an opportunity for increased trade. I mean, it is always easier to trade with your neighbours than with other countries.

DS: Sweden has always been a champion of disarmament, of turning swords into ploughshares. to use a famous phrase. Now, with the end of the Cold War and with all the talk going on about disarmament in the East and West, is Sweden planning to push for a transfer of money from arms and into development?

COC: 1 think 1 know what you are aiming at. At the Paris aid consortium meeting, there were discussions about using less money in the Bangladesh budget for defence and more for development. 1 don't think we had a view on that issue specifically. But our common view is of course to bring military spending down throughout the world.

We are also vety worried in Sweden ^bout the environment. We have 11 nuclear power stations there, but the government decided even before the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union to close down those stations. There is simply no safe way to handle npclear power, not yet anyway, the Chernobyl disaster sent clouds of radio-active dust over Sweden, and that upset the people very much. As I said, the decision to close all nu-

before 1986, but Chernobyl provided another spark.