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BOOK REVIEW

Disappointing effort

Asjadul Kibria
Financial inclusion is a mantra' actively preached by Atiur Rahman since his appointment as the governor of Bangladesh Bank. His effort to make financial inclusion a key instrument against poverty drew global attention. Prominently known as a pro-poor development economist Rahman's maneuverings with central banking have garnered mixed outcomes over the last couple of years.
The two core functions of Bangladesh Bank—containing inflation and spurring growth with prudent operations of monetary policy, and guarding the financial sector to help maintain macroeconomic stability—are not well balanced. Nevertheless, the governor has successfully incorporated financial inclusion to other core functions of the central bank and thus challenged the traditional mode of monetary operations to some extent.
Now, spurring financial inclusion to achieve sustainable development in the long run is a hectic process. Thus everyone, especially policymakers, academics, businessmen, professionals and development partners need to understand the mantra properly. In this connection, the incumbent governor's book, 'Inclusive Finance and Sustainable Development' should have been a very good tool of gathering knowledge on financial inclusion.
Having the book in hand, one may feel some excitement primarily but is soon likely to be disappointed. It is not that the book failed to explain different dimensions of financial inclusion, but because a wide mix of topics subdued the most important theme.
The book is actually a compilation of occasional speeches of Bangladesh Bank governor 2009-2013' as mentioned in the subtide. Why was it necessary to collect different speeches of the central bank
governor into a 650-page book? The book tries to answer that question in the preface. It says: "The objective of compiling the present compendium of speeches of Governor Rahman is to offer the reader a picture of the evolving nature of policies and strategies of the central bank to meet emerging needs of the economy and society." It sounds worthy. One can, however, easily find all these speeches on the website of the Bangladesh Bank.
The book is divided into nine parts, which variably cover several major issues like central banking, financial stability, financial inclusion, microfinance, Bangladesh economy, global economy. One can choose a certain topic and just flip to the pages to find out Rahman's thoughts on the matter.
However, the simple reprinting of his 213 speeches almost without any update and proper context sometimes makes these shallow. The editors of the book failed to take care of this.
There is a knowledge gap in inclusive banking or inclusive finance in the country as well as across the world. As Rahman has been rigorously working on the issue on both
policy and field levels, it is highly expected that he would provide an in-depth academic paper along with the real world scenario. But Part III of the book with a focus on financial inclusion falls below expectations. The compilation of Tl speeches on subjects as varied as financial inclusion, mobile banking, sharecropping, agriculture and SME lending leads to loss of direction.
Although many speeches widely touched upon important aspects of these issues, keeping track is difficult due to the scattered nature of the compilation. Instead of compiling all these speeches, there should have been some analytical articles on inclusive financing supported by some case studies. Occasional speeches could be used as significant inputs to enrich the articles. In that case, the articles would have become a valuable addition to the literature on financial inclusion.
Another drawback is in the microfinance and non-bank financial institutions section. Rahman's work on microfinance is not new. Thus this chapter could have been easily turned into an elaborate paper covering different dimensions and debates on microfinance.
There are a lot of topics covered, and as a book it serves as a physical record of Rahman's diversified attempts to making the central bank's contribution to sustainable development effective. Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) published the book on glossy paper inside a nice binding last year. The soft copy of the book is also available on the central bank and BIBM websites. BIBM Director General Toufic Ahmad Choudhury, an economist with rich financial sector experience, took the responsibility of editing the book. He was supported by Ziaul Karim, a former journalist and now a banker.
Asjadul Kibria is the business page editor of Prothom Alo and can be reached at asjadulk@gmail.com