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COLUMN

Resourcing our future

MAMUN RASHID
As Henry Ford says, “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." Building a nation can be a rather Herculean task America was not built in a day as one of the most powerful nation or Japan, a country from rags to riches story, within just a few decades. Since the dawn of our elastic civilisation, it is people who have carried it forward and given it the shape that it has taken today. And it is people who will continue to shape it tomorrow.
Bangladesh, as battle ridden as it is, courtesy of being born into the club of Least Developed Nations, has not been directing enough attention to the human resource factor. We fail to notice the achievements of the few individuals who are really pushing this country forward.
The country has a steady Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of over 5 percent for the last decade. We have increased our presence in the global arena and our voice is heard loud and clear in all global forums. In spite of all odds, the economy is growing, business houses are making more profits year on year, and new international business houses are sniffing around or have already established their presence in the country.
Still, why the fear and the confusion?
During visits to some of the ministries or any government official or the business houses, we have often found people having a much more positive insight about the potential of Bangladesh. We may be able to bring more investment to the country but we are short of skilled labour force. This is the tragedy. Although our country may have a huge growth
potential but we are seriously in short of able resources that can shape up the future.
Bangladeshis have an uncanny habit of being proud of only the past. It's a nation that is only 37 years old. The hangover of the joy of liberation should be there with promises of an even better tomorrow. In spite of dictatorship under which democracy suffered and the greedy politicians, we have now reached a position where expansion and growth is inevitable courtesy of the initiated few.
The need for a robust destination model stemming from micro culminating into macro management and appropriate resource planning cannot be underestimated to reach economic emancipation. However there seems to be an acute mismatch
between the talent that is needed by the growth engines and the talent minted out of the education system of our country.
Children of the baby boomers are today running the world. Yet our country is still run by retired personnel, called back into service, or by nearretired personnel. Until we can bring about sweeping reforms into our education system, we can continue looking for a plethora of other means, but these will bear little fruit. Syllabuses need to be vamped up and teachers need to incorporate global standards in what they teach the students. One Institute of Business Administration (IBA) is not enough We need a multiplicity of such educational institutes that can disseminate the best of knowledge.
Look at what the Indian Institute of Technology (ILL) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) have done for India. The government gives utmost importance to these institutes. In Europe, many countries offer higher education for free, ensuring continuity in intellectual think tanks.
If we look at India, it's the sheer willpower, the determination, and participation of people from all ranks that has placed them where they are. Today, Non-Resident Indians (NR1) as a group pump in billions of dollars into their motherland's economy India has given Ilie world Laxmi Mittal. Paul Swaraj, Sabeer Bhatia. Azim Premji. Victor Menezes, Narayanmurthy, all of Indian origin.
Look at Dr Moyeen Qureshi of die
World Bank or Shaukat Aziz from Citibank, both fostering Pakistani talent to pull into their country if the need ever arises. How do we fare against this comparison?
In the business sector the government has identified few thrust sectors. Interestingly it is the government sectors that have the power to initiate and bring about change. Increasingly there is a trend for better educated students to join the private sector, creating a vacuum of talent in the public sector, to guard themselves against corruption which arises out of being underpaid and not receiving enough incentives.
Yet that cuts a sorry figure since the public sector is where the policies guiding the country stem from. Without adequate knowledge-equipped individuals to formulate policies, the country can never move in the right direction.
One of the ways to let Bangladeshis gain from external knowledge can be to foster exchange programmes and invest intensively in education. Why should we always have to look to the outside world for expertise? Mutual agreements between governments of the US, the UK, and India can pave the way for a steady stream of students to be sent to the top schools with a guaranteed return to country. Favouritism should not be tolerated while selecting such students. For those who decide to stay abroad, utilise them; make them proud enough to be the ambassadors of our country. Utilise the already existing executives. There is so much out there. So many opportunities. We just have to go get it. And we can.
The writer is a banker and an economic analyst