We Wish our readers, patrons and advertisers the very best of the coming year. It was another year of steady as she goes' for Bangladesh, without anything of significance happening either in the positive or in the negative sense. Given our vulnerability to nature, our sensitivity to the faintest of changes in the international economic environment, and the fragile nature of our renewed demo-cratic experiment, the fact that the country continues on a steady — however mediocre — path, could itself be construed as no mean an achievement. But, if we think of ourselves as a people in a hurry, as a nation facing stupendous development challenges, and as a country that has so far failed to provide its majority people even the most rudimentary facilities for a decent life, then an uneventful year Is far from satisfactoiy. in fact it was a year of missed opportunities — 365 days of good time lost.

In the political arena, the supported-by-all and subVerted-by-all issue of a national consensus on a core development agenda remained as elusive as ever. Both the BNP and the AL publicly proclaimed their desire for such a consensus. But hidden behind their pronouncements lay the fact that both saw the national consensus from their own partisan points of view. It was as good as saying. "Consensus of course, just agree to what we say. In this regard the onus must necessarily be placed on the ruling party far more than that on the opposition.

Parliament limped its way forward, gathering steam and momentum in some respects, but con tinuing in its uneventful path in most others. The parliamentary committees functioned much better compared to the previous year, and their effectiveness have begun to be felt in many aspects of our governance. But the parliament itself remains undistinguished in terms of being able to hold a single debate of significance on any important national issue. On the contrary, the parliament stood embarrassed by the repeated acts of the Treasury bench promulgating ordinances, and then bulldoz-

it through the House with little or no debate at

As for the economic health of the country, the signals, at best, are mixed. We have an impressive low inflation record, which has served the consumers well. But it has made our exports more ex-pensive and has thus eroded our competitive edge. There is a more than healthy foreign exchange reserve, which has also helped to keep the Taka value high. But there has been a disappointing level of ADP implementation. This low rate has been termed "alarming," and has raised serious doubts about the 6 per cent GDP growth promised by the Finance Minister.

To draw an overall conclusion from the experiences of the year just past, we continue to live on a day-to-day formula without showing the type of boldness and creativity that our development challenge requires.

However mediocre our performance was during 1993, there are definite signs that our economy is likely to pick up in the coming year. We hope that our entrepreneurs will show more initiative and boldness in 1994. We hope that the government will do a better job of creating the enabling environment' that we need to generate growth. We hope that in the new year, there will be Tess hartals and strikes.