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AL, BNP economic pledges
With the announcement of the Election Manifesto 08, voters now’ know the economic pledges of Awami League (AL) and Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Business leaders and economic analysts have started examining the feasibility of these programmes and promises and considering the track record of the economic performances of the respective political parties during their tenure in power. A close scrutiny of these economic policies and promises reveals that Awami League has put much needed and timely emphasis on economic issues, as newspapers have commented. The election manifesto of BNP has highlighted micro issues and it lacks long-term vision to keep up the growth momentum, as an economist remarked.
The prices of food items and other essential commodities rose beyond the reach of the common people during BNP-led coalition government. The increase in commodity prices by 100 to 200 percent caused untold suffering to the low-income and mid income groups of people.
The ALhas pledged price reduction and stability by bringing equilibrium between the demand and supply of com-modities. They have also prioritised the production of domestic commodities and made arrangements for timely imports to ensure food security.
The party has also promised to eliminate hoarding and profiteering syndicates and stop extortion by creating an institution to control commodity prices.
The BNP has pledged for increased food production and subsidies for reducing the cost of production. They are silent on syndicates and promises to improve the supply chain by utilising storage facilities, creating job programmes to increase the purchasing power of the people, directly subsidising the prices of necessities.
Another area of failure of the BNP government was its inability to generate additional power, as a result of which people had to suffer a lot because of the frequent loadshedding, loss of industrial production and other businesses.
The BNP manifesto did not clearly spell out any concrete plan or programme for producing power on a priority basis for rescuing the nation from such a miserable power shortage. In fact energy ranks fifth in BNP's priority list.
The AL manifesto has identified the real need of power generation both through short-term and long-term programmes. The manifesto also turns to the longer- term task of poverty alleviation and economic development. They have promised to reduce poverty ratio from current 45 percent to 25 percent within the next five years.
The BNP manifesto promised to reduce poverty through economic growth through number of their vague economic policies, designed for industrialisation.
The BNP manifesto, in order to ensure market promotion and a belter image for Bangladeshi products abroad, pledged to set up a permanent Export Park. They view that it will enhance the country's earnings from export and create job opportunities.
The AL manifesto has mentioned that short, medium and long term plans would be made and implemented for efficient management for quick industrialisation that can provide employment, speedy expansion of stock market, elimination of bribe and corruption and administrative difficulties, creation of an investment friendly environment and a competitive market system, adoption of innovative technology and provision of infrastructural facilities that are able to attract entrepreneurs and expand domestic market.
Interestingly, both AL and BNP have mentioned setting
up a Deep Sea port in their respective manifestos.
In this connection, it may be mentioned here that the AL government during its tenure, approved a project for setting up a Container Terminal at Chittagong and Dhaka by an American company, which, due to lack of initiative by the successive government, had to face a legal death. The frustrated American company left the country after spending a substantial amount of money.
BNP plans to set up Special Economic Zones at different areas of the country for industrial and agio-based industries. This is undoubtedly a good proposal.
Finally ohe can reasonably come to a logical conclusion as to how far the two political parties are capable to implement their economic pledges by carefully considering their past successes or failures in the area of economic activities. Zahid Hossain
Dhaka
Problems with family owned business
Ever since the caretaker government came into power, people have been talking about putting more emphasis on politics driven by experienced and new politicians and imposing restrictions on family based politics.
We have observed problems with family politics. Even experienced politicians dare to speak against any member whose relatives are involved in politics.
The same problem lies with family owned businesses in Bangladesh. These businesses are run directly by family members, thus ii prevents people of the organisation to speak their minds freely when it comes to decision-making because members of the family are the ones who make the ultimate decisions. They are not liable to anyone and are immune lo any accountability. Therefore, whatever decisions they take, no one dares to challenge them. This is definitely a bad sign for the organisation.
Even senior management becomes scapegoats and stay away from taking crucial decisions because their decisions are not honoured. 1 believe, businesses could be family-owned but it should definitely be run by experienced people.
And their accountability must be present, which is a must for any organisation to climb up the ladder of success.
Minhaj Ahmed
Dhaka
Brickfield woes farmers
Hundreds of brickfields are malting bricks in full swing in this season across the country. Bricks are made mainly with soil and it is collected from cultivable land. These are fertile lands where fanners mostly grow cash crops, like paddy, jute and vegetables. Farmers ideally cultivate crops three times a year. But the frequency is reducing day by day. This is because brick manufacturers are collecting soil from farmers by giving lucrative cash money at a time.
Surface soil from cultivable land is usually evacuated from 1 to 2 feet below the ground. After cutting earth, that specific land becomes barren and it is very hard to regain its fertile position again. Some times, farmers have to wait more than two years to bring back the land to its previous form. Repeated soil evacuation from the same land makes the land suitable for only growing paddy. Actually, farmers are mostly ignorant. They have a little knowledge about the proper use of land. They are also not united among themselves. When a. farmer sells earth from the middle of his land, the surrounding land automatically becomes barren. This is the reason-why neighbouring farmers are compelled to sell soil from their land as well. This becomes a permanent loss for farm-” ers and our country has to face food and vegetable crisis in daily life. The time has come now to think over the matter* seriously. Otherwise our future will only bear complexities. MZ Haider
Narsingdi