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Too much talk, too little thought

Anwarul Islam
It is interesting that the cancellation of the credit was termed by some as a bolt from the blue, but the evidence does not confirm this. The cloud was visible about nine months back, in the meantime it thickened and the gathering storm that was visibly coming has taken its toll.
NEWS that the World Bank has cancelled the proposed credit for Padma Bridge project has been received with shock. Intense and wide-ranging fallout of this action have already been highlighted. However, we should believe that this is not the end of the world or doomsday for us. Considering the cost and qualitative aspects we will be happy if the project can still be undertaken and implemented as was stipulated, proposed and outlined. There are other innumerable development projects in different sectors of our economy for which we will welcome assistance from all our development partners for quite sometime more. Maybe in view of this the finance minister, in his press conference, rightly held that the government wanted World Bank to review their decision. Since the news of credit cancellation was received in Dhaka a number of intellectuals have suggested the same.
However, we would have been happier if the blame game was absent in the latest comments just mentioned and that there was no harsh language. For the last two days, a number of people at the top contended we were not at fault, all the wrong was done by others.
It is interesting that the cancellation of the credit was termed by some as a bolt from the blue, but the evidence does not confirm this. The cloud was visible about nine months back, in the meantime it thickened and the gathering storm that was visibly coming has taken its toll.
Some more undesirable things in this regard have happened. While the ball was still in the World Bank's court it was announced that the project would be implemented at our own cost. Congratulations. Nothing could be better than this. Have we thought whether we mean this and how feasible it is in the present situation of our economy? At the same time we have almost finalised a deal with another friendly and brotherly country, why then we should expect anything from any other major donor!
A maxim accepted by all and I believe strongly in the same is that friendship is always and has to be on equal basis. This holds good between individuals, nations and also among bilateral and multilateral development partners (on sovereign equality, of course).We should and act within this parameter. Within this given factor in dealing with this case we should not have displayed arrogance, particularly with regard to corruption. There are innumerable examples all around the globe of a minister tendering resignation suo mo to.
In the very recent past some very top/high ranking personalities from some of our very friendly countries visited us. Considering the wider context and ramifications we could have probably cultivated them little more. And then most recently, some wanted to help us in our deal with the World Bank. We have in our country one or two internationally acclaimed personalities; we could request/ask them to work for the country. Instead, we have thoroughly cornered our own talent only in our soil.
Regarding the work of our missions/embassies abroad, one of their major tasks for a developing country like ours is trade, commerce and economic development. We would be very happy to learn what our concerned embassy has done in this regard.
The writer is a former Secretary.