The oath that the people's representatives will take, or had taken in the past, to uphold democratic values is, or was, mostly for economic emancipation of our people.

The new government despite being elected with a landslide victory will be confronted with the same economic policies and management issues that were taken by the previous government as well as emanating from the global meltdown impact on emerging economies.

With the interim caretaker government mainly focusing on peaceful holding of election, transition to the next elected government, and business as usual, this write up is all about the challenges that the next government is going to face.

Since the life is expected to be little easier with commodity prices coming down globally, the immediate and most important challenge for the new government will be the development of the country's vital infrastructures for sustaining economic growth. The foundation of today’s. modern economies depends on the robustness of its infrastructures. Unfortunately for Bangladesh, we have seen near collapse of the power sector, perennial congestion and inefficiency at the ports, and mismanaged transportation system. Continuously addressing issues like congestion, container handling, corruption etc at the ports is of utter importance. Besides Chittagong port, attempts need to be made to enhance usage of Mongla port. Equally critical is ensuring supply of electricity in tandem with the growth in demand in consumer and industrial segments. For long-term power supply to the nation, the coal sector should be developed with appropriate attention as it can meet the country's energy needs for the next 30 years, as compared to about 10/15 years of proven gas reserves.

Meantime, we need to fix the gas exploration and supply problems with appropriate pricing policy to attract respectable investments.

Improvements need to be made in the land, river, and air transportation sectors as well in order to reduce the cost of doing business. A vicious circle of corruption wraps the maintenance work of our roads and highways, which

reflects badly on their quality and frequent repairs requirement.

Navigable waterways have shamefully been reduced over the years due to lack of dredging. For all these, what is needed is formulation of long-term plans, efficient implementation and candid evaluation. The new government has to meet these challenges with high level of skills.

During the last two decades, the economy of Bangladesh has been growing at a rate of plus minus 5 percent on an average. But the benefit of this growth did not reach the majority of the people. As a result, the gap between the poor and the rich is widening day by day. Wealth is being concentrated in the hands of a small group of people, which is mostly close to the ruling regimes. Most people think that the state is only taking care of the rich, while ignoring the poor, or at the cost of the poor. Regardless of how hard the government tries, its policies are bound to fail unless it wins the trust of the majority. The second factor is the ineffectiveness of vital institutions. Social, political and economic constituents of the state structure lost their credibility due to lack of proper governance and accountability. Dearth of institutional credibility has rendered proper implementation of economic policies nearly impossible. The new government has to think seriously about how to bring back credibility and effectiveness to the public institutions. It has to work hard to bring about a positive change in the quality of leadership of different institutions, enabling them to make prudent decisions with courage and speed. There is consensus among the political parties regarding open market economy. So, little scope remains for any change on this front. However, we are still at liberty to improve plans on how we will make the market mechanism work for us in this open economic environment.

Recently, the policy-makers were troubled on issues of how the future investments in our economy will be financed to sustain growth.

Our domestic savings are increasing but it is not sufficient to propel the needed growth, as is the case in many developing countries. Alternatives to domestic savings could be foreign aid, loans, or international commercial capital.

International commercial capital could be attained through foreign direct investment (FDD or loans from international capital markets.

The foreign aid, or debt, that the government receives from donors is usually on soft terms, and of long tenure in nature. These loans are often not associated with proper accountability, raising serious doubts about their effectiveness. Moreover, the amount of such subsidised funds is inadequate for accelerated growth.

The remaining options at hand are FDI and borrowing from inter-national capital markets. However, both options have their demerits too. Corruption and mismanagement create the possibility for improper allocation of the loans collected from international commercial sources. Sourcing of the incremental investment that is needed to sustain and enhance the growth rate would be a challenge for new government, and it should be put on the priority agenda.

There is also a sensitive issue for the new government to handle,

which is how and what amount of subsidy should be given, and why.

The state could give subsidy to the deprived people so they do not get disjointed from the majority. However, it is time to question the effectiveness and justification of subsidies that are drawn in the name of the poor but ultimately end up in the hands of a small group of influential people.

In an economy of limited means, such as ours, prevention of this wastage in the name of subsidy could free up resources for much needed productive use. The new government needs to ask itself the rationale for providing such subsidy. Perhaps, privatisation of the loss making state owned entities, or infusion of private capital, would have reduced losses on the part of the government, along with the blame for failure.

Development of agriculture is closely linked with tire improve ment of the lives of millions. But lack of proper planning has put our agricultural sector in an adverse and backward position Agriculture and agro-based prod-

ucts have to be upgraded to an attractive industry through integration of modern technology and application of commercial capital. Added to this is an appropriate pricing of the produced means to keep the farmers happy in the fields and engaged.

We have been perpetually neglecting the domestic capital market in our economic policies and plans. Had there been a vibrant domestic capital market, it would have expedited our industrial growth. Effectiveness of our capital market should be evaluated on its ability to provide the right incentive and support to the industrial and other business entities. Moreover, we need to improve coordination among different execution agencies of the government such as SEC, Bangladesh Bank, Bol, NBR, BTRC, BERCetc.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a critical role in today's economic lifeline. Unfortunate but true, we do not have any plan on how we can capitalise on this sector to give a boost to our economy. We do not have adequate knowledge of the ICT sector, but worse yet. we do not also thinkadequatelyofhowwe can build our knowledge in this sector. On the other hand, our neighbouring countries have expedited their economic growth by application of ICT.

The new government should think about developing this sector with export-led objectives.

We are standing at a turning point in the history of Bangladesh. On one hand, we have upheld the core values of democracy by holding a peaceful election for the fourth time. On the other hand, the light of realistic prospects for a brighter future is beckoning us from the horizon.

We will probably not get such a great chance again to change the fate of millions of people in this country. At this juncture, the people of this country expect the new government to bring transparency in economic management and policy-making. We all hope that the new government will reach a broad-based consensus with respect to strategy for economic development. For this, we all have to unite, and even be ready to make big sacrifices.

The wnter is a banker and economic analyst. He can be reached at. mamun 196O@9ma1l.com