Politicians may have failed again last year, but the private sector has not. With perseverance, innovation and resilience, it has written another inspiring chapter in the just-concluded year.

The result is an encouraging growth in the Industrial sector, much of which came from small enterprises. The latest Quantum Index of Production (QIP), which excludes the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), shows a 8.8 percent growth in July-August of the current fiscal year (FY) against last year's 6.85 percent. Sectors such as pharmaceuticals and textiles pumped much of the steam into the growth engine and an exponential advancement of the service sector, especially the tele-

communications, kept the march steady.

The service sector growth has touched people’s life in many dimensions. Shamima Khatun of Satkhira, who received last year's Global Microcntrcprcncurship Award of the Citigroup Foundation and the UNCDF, put it in her simple language:"! supply vegetable to the local market and 1 source my product from across the country." she said. "The main tool I use for this is my mobile phone. 1 instantly collect price information and make my business decision. Without the cellphone, 1 would have been lost."

No wonder that the mobile phone sector crossed the 9.4-million subscriber mark with case last year at a 144 percent growth rate.

But the journey had not been

easy for the private sector. Talk to any businessman and he will list you the problems. Corruption, they say. reached a new zenith last year. Nothing worked without money and the amount of speed money increased to an abnormal proportion.

"Without a strong lobby in the power corridor, you can’t get any business started," said a top businessman of the country. “The situation was not so bad even a few years back."

The infrastructure remained dismally .poor. The quality and continuity of power supply were at their worst, while other services remained at their rock bottoms. The port was an exception though, with installation of gantry cranes speeding up goods clearance. Other port facilities also improved last year, but businessmen say the port still has miles to go.

Crime was another area that witnessed some improvement last year to the relief of the private sector. It reported fewer incidents of extortion and intimidation by organised criminals.

But still that did not make life easier for the private sector people. A spate of bomb blasts scared investors and foreign buyers off. Foreign buyers now do not want to fly in to negotiate deals. But, the garment owners did not let up; they now fly out to a third country for deal finalisation. The quota phase-out also jolted the readymade garment industry that feeds 78 percent of the export figure.

Last year also saw a big drop in apparel prices. In many cases prices eroded by as much as 30 percent. That had a big impact on the woven garment exports that plummeted by 8.10 percent in July to September last year (or the first quarter of the current fiscal year, FY06). But the loss in woven sub-sector had been made up by a spectacular 17.95 percent growth in knitwear during the same period.

And the construction sector bounced back from a year of depression. Demands grew although housing prices soared by almost 50 percent in the last one year. The last housing fair saw a record Tk 650 crore sales against a targeted Tk 500 crore.

The farmers also put in their best last year in both Boro and Aman seasons to churn out good yields. Despite flooding in some important northern pockets, the average Aman harvest was high. The crops sector that has witnessed dismal growth figures for the last five fiscal years, including two negative years of FY02 (-2.39 percent) and FY05 (-3.30 percent), is expected to contribute heavily to this fiscal year's GDP growth.

The mobility in the economy was also reflected in a high credit growth of 20.85 percent in July-September last year. Although a chunk of it was due to heavy government borrowing and state-owned enterprise lending, the private sector also had a pie of it and its credit grew by 17.2 percent. Imports also kept pace with the economic activities and grew by

38.95 percent in that quarter.

All this means the economy generated a lot of steams, creating new jobs. The better agriculture meant better income for the rural poor. And the rise of the SME sector meant more egalitarian pay. All these are healthy signs for the economy.

But dangers also appeared on the horizon and inflation was only one of them. What was only 5.52 percent in January inched up to 7.28 percent in October. Much of it was imported because of price rise of commodities on the international markets. Increase in fuel price also added to that upward trend in prices.

Without proper assessment of the causes of inflation, the government embarked on a contractionary monetary policy and applied its instruments to increase interest rates by around 3 percent. This made the business community jittery as their costs increased. If the trend continues in the new year, it may adversely affect investment, although many would argue that factors outside the cost of fund now affect investment more than anything in Bangladesh.

Because of high imports and pressure on exports, the balance of payment situation again turned fragile last year and the foreign exchange reserve dwindled to $2.80 billion.

The course that Bangladesh economy can follow in the new year remains wide open. On one side, the election year may have some extraneous pressures on the economy in terms of rent-seeking, breakdown in governance, worsening of the law and order, and slowdown in reforms. In that case, Bangladesh may be flung into a growth retarding blackhole nadir. But a silver lining is also there; a new opportunity opens up through the Safta and Bimstec free trade agreement. Despite all the strains, Bangladesh's garments are still competitive and buyers don't want to shift orders from a stable supplier. Agro products have a good export chance. And the demand for domestic investment -- in infrastructure, in agriculture and in services -is huge.

The business community is ready to take up the challenge. What remains to be seen is whether the country's political leadership responds with an equal commitment.