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UK-Bangladesh relations: Close ties and common challenges
***Speech of Alistair Burt MR Minister for South Asia, delivered at BRAC University, Dhaka on 29 May 2012***
IT is a great pleasure to be here today at your wonderful university. This is a particularly fitting venue in which to discuss our countries' close ties and common challenges. BRAC is the world's largest NGO, which to the credit of Bangladesh and Sir Fazle Abed is at the forefront of international development work. It is also a key partner for the UK in delivering aid projects, and is therefore an important example of UK-Bangladesh cooperation.
Cooperation between our two countries goes back to the birth of Bangladesh. We were the first European country to recognise your independence and I understand that the Royal Air Force had the honour of flying Bangabandhu to his newly born, free state.
The contribution of many British citizens to the creation of Bangladesh was highlighted earlier this year at a major award ceremony here in Dhaka, when over 100 Friends of Bangladesh were recognised. This demonstrated how these links have endured over the years.
Indeed, next week we share with Bangladesh the celebrations of Her Majesty the Queen's Diamond jubilee. And this summer we in the UK including the half a million Brits of Bangladeshi origin are looking forward to welcoming your competitors to the Olympic Games, which are being hosted in London for an historic third time.
This is my first visit to Bangladesh and I am glad to have the opportunity to discuss with you the opportunities and challenges ahead for your country and for relations between Bangladesh and Britain.
But first, I would like, as the Vice Chancellor has indicated, to set out three areas in which I believe our interests are particularly aligned, and in which we are working together for the good of our citi-
zens. The first is prosperity, underpinned by free trade; the second is climate change, whose pace we are working to slow and whose effects we are working to mitigate; and the third is social participation, which can harness the energies of our societies to achieve our aims.
So let me start with prosperity. Global economic conditions are posing challenges for both our economies. Many of the causes of economic problems are out of our hands. But many of the solutions are not.
My government wholeheartedly believes that the current challenges can be addressed by promoting growth. This means supporting the private sector ensuring that small businesses have access to credit and are not overburdened by regulation or tax. It means creating the physical conditions for businesses to flourish by investing in communications and transport infrastructure. But most importantly, it means developing stronger trading links with other countries around the world.
It is through trade that we will be able to benefit from growth outside our immediate neighbourhoods. It makes growth abroad a win-win strategy for us.
So I am delighted that UKaid is funding the largest Private Sector and Growth programme in the world here in Bangladesh. It aims to strengthen the business climate and increase foreign and domestic investment which are key to ensuring Bangladesh's long-term prosperity.
Our thriving commercial relationship is an excellent example of the mutual benefits of trade. The UK is among the largest investors in Bangladesh, with over 250 billion Taka worth of investment. Some 70 British firms operate here. These range from the big names such as GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, and Standard Chartered, to smaller companies who are also doing good business.
And bilateral trade between us is growing. Over the last five years, trade in goods between
Britain and Bangladesh has almost doubled to over 200 billion Taka. Last year alone Bangladeshi exports of goods to the UK grew by 32%; while exports in the other direction increased by 19%. The UK is now Bangladesh's third-largest export market.
So our mutual prosperity is clearly important to both of us. Increased global trade and investment is one of the most effective ways of improving people's lives around the world, including here in Bangladesh.
Climate change is one of the biggest threats to the wellbeing of people around the world. I know that Bangladesh's geography makes it particularly vulnerable to flooding on the one hand and water shortages on the other.
I remember seeing coverage of the terrible flooding in the summer of 2007, which caused over a billion dollars worth of economic damage. And just months later, that November, Cyclone Sidr hit, claiming the lives of 3500 people.
In the UK, my government is working tirelessly
to lower carbon emissions worldwide. In particular, we are pressing for a legally binding agreement in 2015, taking forward the Durban Platform.
We want to help all countries do their bit to make growth green. This is why in February the UK and Bangladesh signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Collaboration on Energy Research and Development. It aims to share research and resources on low carbon technologies, and to encourage improvements in energy efficiency. And through the British Council's inspire programme, Bangladeshi and British universities are collaborating on research projects, looking at how the twenty largest companies in Bangladesh can be greener.
But we also want to help mitigate the effects of any future disasters. We supported the Climate Vulnerable Forum that Bangladesh hosted in Dhaka last November and which Bangladesh chairs this year. And we are supporting the construction of fifty six new multi-purpose cyclone shelters. And UKaid is helping to put systems in place that will help over fifteen million Bangladeshis to be better prepared for floods.
So in tackling both the causes and the effects of climate change, Britain will be an unwavering partner.
But prosperity and climate change are not just the business of governments. Individual citizens and their communities have important roles to play too. In the UK, this idea is central to our notion that we've termed the 'Big Society', which informs many of my government's policies. It encourages communities to take on responsibility for public issues that don't necessarily need to be centrally planned and run. By fostering social participation, we hope to empower our citizens to take control of the issues that are most important to them and to better hold their government to account.
I am very struck by the sense that society and state are not necessarily the same. I am struck by how much my society can learn from yours. Here in Bangladesh, family and community bonds are incredibly strong, and provide important networks of support that do not rely on the state. Two years ago, a British Council survey showed that Bangladeshi youths are dedicated to their country and are concerned about the problems that it faces.
So there is much potential for social action. However, the same survey found that while 98% of people between the ages of 15 and 30 believe they should be involved in social work, only 30% actually are. So the challenge is not to get young people engaged about social issues. They are already engaged. It is to empower them to get involved.
I am proud that the United Kingdom is helping to address this challenge here in Balgladesh. The British Council has so far trained 10,000 young activ-ists to be Active Citizens, able to run projects addressing social problems in their communities. It has also worked in partnership with BRAC, the British Youth Council and others to pilot the first session of a youth parliament in the Jatiya Shangshad.
Empowering people to take local problems into their own hands is extremely important. But the same people must also feel empowered to address national problems. This is at the heart of democracy providing citizens with the means of expressing their views and shaping their futures. And it can start with community organisations. For example President Obama was a community organiser from little acorns...
Having democratic processes are necessary, but they are not sufficient. It is vital the citizens have confidence in the processes: confidence that their votes can be made freely, confidence that those votes will be fairly counted, and confidence that those votes will make a difference.
Such confidence requires all members of society to be equally bound by the same rules and laws, and for those rules to be consistently enforced. Justice is a central pillar of all democracies.
And all true democracies are underpinned by the same common values of tolerance, compassion, generosity, respect, individual freedoms, human rights, and rule of law. We must be willing as governments to subject our actions to democratic scrutiny and to heed the warnings of civil society.
British MPs regularly visit Bangladesh and vice versa. Having been both a Minister in the Government and a member of a party in opposition, I find much to discuss with a wide range of Bangladeshi political leaders. I am pleased that the Westminster Foundation for Democracy plans to facilitate lesson-learning between the parliaments of the UK and Bangladesh and between our respective political parties.
So strong societies,
with hard working and determined individuals that are open to new ideas and approaches, will help to address the challenges that we face in common. Those of us in government need to support these societies by creating the right sort of environment for them to succeed.
So thank you today for your welcome and for turning out in such numbers. I am delighted to be in Bangladesh to see firsthand the breadth of co-operation between our two countries not only at a government-to-government level, but also across civil society. I am particularly pleased to be able to exchange views with you all. After all, you are the future the politicians, the academics, the businesspeople, and the journalists of tomorrow. It will be your job to address the problems that we face. And as you do, I hope that you will look to the United Kingdom as a partner and as a friend. You will be sure to find cooperation and support.