Woes of our economy

Sir. The performance of economic activity of our country largely depends upon the spontaneous flow of in-vestment.The larger the volume of investment, the greater will be the pace of economic programmes of that country.

But the fact is that investment originates from savings. And savings in turn create as well as mobilize capital for investment. In a nutshell, savings and capital, capital and investment, investment and production, production and employment and people's standard of living are all correlated phenomena. .

The disappointing performance of our economy is due mainly to the deplorable conditions of savings and capital formation necessary ' for investment.

Very low domestic investment along with various shortcomings of economic and social nature has made our country extremely dependent on Foreign Direct Investment(FDI). Our country is often said to have the most liberal investment and industrial policy in the Asia Pacific region. Nevertheless, we have miserably failed to project our country as a favorable and attractive land for FDI. According to the Asian Development Bank. Bangladesh is unfortunately the lowest FDI receiving country within this region. Interestingly enough, the agricultural sector of our country failed to attract even one per cent of the FDI.

There is no denying the fact that labour unrest, political instability, bureaucratic tangles, deterioration of law and order situation, lack of

infra-structural support are the major factors hindering the desired flow of FDI into Bangladesh.These factors tend to severely damage our image abroad as a nation prospective for economic development.

In this connection, we feel sorry to mention that whatever woes our economy has at this moment, almost all seem -to have stemmed from unfair practices adopted by a number of our established politicians and their stooges.

Nitin Roy

North Bashabo, Dhaka

Need for dialogue

Sir. It appears from the recent development in our political arena that all the political parties are now actively thinking to resolve the prevailing political crisis through dialogue.

We would sincerely call upon all the concerned political fronts to sit in the dialogue and settle their political disputes by demonstrating true spirit of patriotism. It is to be noted that a poor country like Bangladesh cannot sustain so much political disturbances. Political stability is a must for the very survival of our dear Bangladesh.

M Zahidul Haque

Asstt Prof, BAI, Dhaka

Culture shock in Canada, etc.

Sir. This refers to the letter captioned as above published in The Daily Star on 24 December. 1995. I apologise for a mistake I think I have made in the letter. It was Mr B C Roy and not Professor S N Bhadra, who was both teacher and colleague of Dr Syed Sajjad Husain, who went to a MunshlganJ college

for a teaching position after his retirement, and walked back to Dhaka without answering an 'outrageous' question asked by the interview-ers.

However. Prof S N Bhadra was also a teacher of Dr Syed Sajjad Husain about whom he had many fond memories to tell. Prof Bhadra was a direct student of Oxford tripos Ar-avindo Ghosh brothers who studied Homer and Virgil in Greek and Latin respectively. Prof Bhadra introduced Dr Husain to Greek literature when he was a student of second year honours, for which Dr Husain praised him highly and also accused him personally why he did not tell him about Greek literature when he was in the first year honours class. The learned Professor enjoyed to be accused by his dear student. From this incident Dr Husain made it a point that in future when he would be a teacher, he would never fall to keep his students abreast of all facets of knowledge that he was aware of.

Mohamed Abdul Mutalib Onnesha College

Dhanmondt R/A. Dhaka

A ray of hope

Sir, We are happy indeed to learn through newspapers that Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina is willing to discuss with Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia about the formation of a caretaker government if it is aired through radio and television live In the past, she had refused any sort of discussion unless the Prime Minister had agreed to hold the next general election under a caretaker government. We are looking

upon this change of heart as a good sign. If there is decorum to be observed we think Sheikh Hasina will be gracious enough to do it for her country and Begum Khaleda Zia will accept it gladly.

, People of our country have passed through a very disquieting period and at long last are hoping for some peace and sanity. We are sure that our two leaders, through discussion. will strike upon a solution which will ensure the participation of all political parties in the next genera] election.

Nur Jahan

East Nasirabad, Chittagong

An appreciation

Sir. Prof Roushan Ara Hoque's two articles entitled. Recalling Sher-e-Bangla. the Legendary Hero of Politics' and 'Hussein Shaheed Suhra-wardy — a Champion of Democracy, published In The Daily Star on 26th October and 5th December. '95 respectively are of scholarly standard. Such well thought-out and impartial analyses of the contributions of our great leaders of the past are extremely useful for our younger generations who often get distorted facts in their text books. We would request Prof Hoque to contribute more and more such articles so that we can be benefited by her erudition.

In this context our hearty congratulations to her for getting the Shaheed Suhra-wardy National Award for her contribution to education and literature.

Shajlq Ahmed .

Dhanmondt. R/A, Dhaka1209