Development Management Setting the Economy's Take-Off

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    Bangladesh: For A Development ManagementSetting the Economys Take-off

    Dr. S. M. Ali Akkas

    Email: [email protected] , [email protected] Web: www.cdss.ingeniousbd.org

    ( Abstract: Bangladesh has the potentials for take-off. Many of the preconditionsare already met. Among these are the very high investment-GDP ratio, extensivenetwork of road and telecommunication, reawakening of manufacturing sectorsalong with readymade garments as the lead sector. However, the major limiting

    factor is the lack of quest for take-off by the political authority, i.e., the visionand mission for take-off. It badly needs good governance. The paper attemptsto identify Bangladeshs position as regards take-off of its economy and highlights the need for a development paradigm shift and the need for setting arevised strategic vision for the country. It also emphasizes the necessity for resetting the countrys strategic mission for development.)

    1. Introduction:

    Despite facing ample challenges as encountered by most developingcountries of the world, Bangladesh economy should have consistently

    been prepared for take-off. There are quite a number of glaring failures but the commendable successes it has attained during the last one and ahalf decade in macro management of the economy have formed a groundfor take-off, which may pave the way for resolving many of the criticaldevelopment problems such as poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and low

    productivity within a foreseeable future. This is not an artificial attempt toaltering pessimism into expectation of false hope, rather to help build, onwhat has already been attained, a foundation for what ought to be donenext. It is rather some sort of confidence building based on some positivechange that has already taken place in the economy.

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    Without going into the debate of the soundness of Rostows stage thesis,the concept take-off has been deliberately chosen in the present article toexpress an emphatic drive that a developing country needs in settingdynamism in its economy for a sustained development. The prerequisitesfor transition and the ground setting needed for take-off have beenconceived as prompt and timely actions needed for a desperate nationaspiring quick development of the country.

    Section-2 of the paper attempts to identify Bangladeshs position asregards take-off of the economy. While Section 3 and 4 highlight the needfor a development paradigm shift and the need for setting a revisedstrategic vision for the country respectively, Section-5 emphasizes thenecessity for resetting the countrys strategic mission for development andhighlights the strategic direction of the countrys development. Section-6outlines the strategic actions the country needs to put in place for take off.Section-7 concludes.

    2. Where does Bangladesh stand in terms of Take-off and thePre-requisites An Analysis from MacroeconomicManagement Perspective

    Take-off stage, as Rostow defines, is the third of his five stages of developmentviz: traditional, transitional, take-off, maturity and high mass consumption(Rostow, 1960). It is a short stage of development when growth becomes self-sustaining. Investment must rise to a level in excess of 10 percent of nationalincome in order for per capita income to rise sufficiently to guarantee adequatefuture levels of saving and investment. Also important is the establishment of what Rostow calls leading growth sectors. Historically, domestic finance for take-off seems to have come from two main sources. The first has been fromdiversion of part of the product of agriculture by land reform and other means.The second source has been from enterprising landlords who voluntarily plough

    back rents into commerce and industry.

    In practice, the development of major export industries has sometimes led totake-off permeating substantial capital imports. The sector or sectors, which ledto the take-off, seem to have varied from country to country, but in many

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    countries, railway building seems to have been prominent. Certainly, animprovement in the internal means of communication is crucial for expansion of markets that facilitate exports, coal, iron and engineering. However, Rostowargued that any industry could play the role of the leading sector in the take-off stage provided four conditions are met. First , the market for the product should

    be expanding fast to provide a firm basis for the growth of output. Second , theleading sector generates secondary expansion. Third, the sector has an adequateand continual supply of capital from ploughed-back profits. Finally, the new

    production functions can be continually introduced into the sector, meaningscope for increased productivity.

    Rostow contends that the beginnings of take-off in most countries can be traced back to a particular sharp stimulus, which has taken many different forms, suchas technological innovation or more obviously a political revolution, e.g.,Germany in 1848, the Meiji restoration in Japan in 1868, China in 1949, andIndian independence in 1947. Rostow is at pains to emphasize that there is noone single pattern or sequence for take-off. Thus, there is no need for developingcountries today to recapitulate the course of events in, say, Great Britain, Russiaor America. The crucial requirement is that the preconditions for take-off aremet. Otherwise the take-off, whatever form it takes, will be abortive. Investmentmust be over 10 percent of national income; one or more leading sectors mustemerge; and there must exist or emerge a political, social and institutionalframework, which exploits the impulse to expansion. Examples are given of

    extensive railway building in Argentina before 1914, and in India, China andCanada before 1895, failing to initiate take-off because the full transition from atraditional society had not been made.

    The main economic requirement for transition phase, the preconditions for take-off, Rostow says, is that the level of investment should be raised to 10

    percent of national income to ensure self-sustaining growth. The maindirection of this investment must be in transport and other social overheadcapital to build up societys infrastructure. The preconditions of a rise in theinvestment ratio consist of a willingness of people to lend risk capital, theavailability of men willing and able to be entrepreneurs and to innovate, andthe willingness of the society at large to operate an economic system gearedto the factory and the principle of the division of labour. On the social front,a new elite must emerge to fabricate the industrial society and supercede theauthority in the land-based elite of the traditional society. The new elite mustchannel surplus product from agriculture to industry, and there must be a

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    Fig-1: Investment: Public and Private

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    Fig-2: Revenue, Expenditure and ADP as Percentof GDP

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    willingness to take risks and to respond to material incentives. Moreover, because of the enormity of the task of transition, the establishment of aneffective modern government is vital. The length of the transition phasedepends on the speed with which local talent, energy, and resources aredevoted to modernization and the overthrow of the old order and in thisrespect, political leadership will have an important part to play (Thirlwall,1994).

    2.1. An Investment-GDP Ratio met necessary condition for take-off:

    It was the contention that an economy to take-off would require investingmore than 10% of its national income. On that consideration Bangladesheconomy was suppose totake-off from the

    beginning of the 1990s.Unfortunately, that didnot happen. From thattime there has been aconstant rise of investment-GDP ratioreaching as high as 25%in FY05-06 (Fig-1),showing a declining trend in the last two fiscal years (Ministry of Finance,March 2008). Where is the problem? Is it due to the lack of politicalleadership and/ or the lack of governance or something else?

    2.2. Relatively Higher Control on the Economy in financing NationalBudget

    There has been a steady progress in the rise of Revenue-GDP ratio from9.6% in the FY2000-01 to11.3% in FY07-08(Ministry

    of Finance, March 2008). TheExpenditure-GDP maintainsthe same trend as of theRevenue-GDP ratio, showing

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    Fig-3: Revenue-Exp Ratio

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    Fig-4a: Export-Import trend in Bangladesh

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    Fig-4b: Export-Import Situation

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    some control on the management of national budget. Of course, thedeclining tendency of ADP-GDP ratio appears to be a grey area (Fig-2).

    Even in a situation of still weak governance in tax administration, therehas been an improvementin the Revenue-Expenditure ratio duringFY2000-01 to FY05-06(Fig-3). The ratio has hada constant upwardmovement from 60% inFY2000-01 to 73.5% inFY05-06 with asubsequent deterioration

    in FY06-07 and FY07-08 (Ministry of Finance, March 2008).

    2.3. Uncontained Improvement in the External Sector of the Economy

    Bangladesh economy hadexperienced a constantimprovement from early ninetiesin terms of increase in bothexport and imports as percentageof GDP (Fig-4a). Export as a

    percentage of import progressedfrom 49% in 1990-91 to 70% inFY2001-02 but weakened thereafter. The situation improved in FY05-06

    and FY06-07 due to a fall inimport cost relative to exportearning (Fig-4b) in spite of sharpdrop in the export-import ratiodue to political turmoil in FY 05-06. It seems that the country hasgained some real control onforeign trade, even if the exportsector heavily relies upon the

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    Fig-4c:Balance of Payment Situation

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    Fig5: Comparative BOP Scenerio during FY07& FY08

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    sole export item, the garment, which is horribly risky by allconsiderations.

    Further, the balance of payments situation of the country has continuously been less volatile showing an improvement in the management of theexternal sector of theeconomy by theimprovement of theCurrent Account Balancesituation except in FY00-01 and FY04-05 when theC/A balance wasnegative. The country hasexperienced notableCurrent Account surpluses in FY05-06 and FY06-07 (Fig-4c). Weobserve that there had been a further improvement in C/A surplus inFY06-07 in spite of the deterioration in trade deficit. That means, it wasnot trade, rather remittances that led to surpluses in the Current Account

    Balance in FY06-07. It is also noticedthat there was a

    lower C/A surplusduring Jul-Dec08compared to Jul-Dec07 due tohigher trade deficitduring Jul-Dec08

    compared to Jul-Dec07 (Fig-5).

    2.4. On the Plane of Deficit Financing

    The Budget Deficit varied between 3.4 6.0% of GDP during the past

    one and half decade covering three election regimes and the present care-taker government (Fig-6). Budget deficit tended to be contained by eachelected regime in the beginning of their getting into power butdeteriorated in the terminal years of their offices. We observe a

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    Fig-6: Financing Budget Deficit by BankBorrowing

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    deterioration in budget deficit again in FY07-08, which is likely todeteriorate further in the coming FY08-09 because of huge deficitfinancing in the new budget.

    Fig-6 further shows that financing budget deficit through bank borrowingwas never verysignificant (i.e.,not more than1.5% of GDP)until FY05-06,

    but it soaredduring the lasttwo fiscal yearsFY2006-07 andFY07-08(Ministry of Finance, 2008). This is one of the major causes of recent inflation, others

    being price hike in world foods items and internal shortage of food supplydue to floods and cyclone Sidr.

    2.5 An Encouraging Performance of the Industrial Sector

    2.5.1 Growth of Industrial Sector How far the industrial sector would come up in the way to take-off?Statistics shows thatthe contribution of the industrial sector to GDP has grownfrom 17.31% in1980-81 to 29.77 %in 2006-07, of whichthe contribution of

    manufacturingsector is 17.79 %.The estimatedgrowth of manufacturing was 11.19% in FY06-07 compared to 5.64%

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    Fig-7b : Industrial Growth Rate

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    Fig-8: Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

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    Fig-9: Private Sector Investment in Bangladesh

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    during 1997-2001 and 5.48%, 6.75%, 7.01% and 8.19% during FY01-02,FY02-03, FY03-04 and FY04-05, respectively (Fig-7a) (Ministry of Finance, 2007).

    Fig-7b shows that thegrowth of the small andcottage industries sub sector has accelerated from 5.4%in 1999-00 to 10.28 % in2006-07, while that of themedium and large scale subsector went up from 4.4%to 11.56% during the same

    period.

    2.5.2 Growth of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Private SectorInvestment (PSI)

    There has been a phenomenalgrowth of both FDI and PSI.The immediate pastgovernment inherited aneconomy with an FDI of onlyUS$79 million, which soaredto US$ 845 million inFY2004-05. There was aslight decline in the flow of FDI in FY05-06 due to political turmoil (Fig-8). FDI grew on an average

    by 170 percent each year during FY00-01 to FY04-05(Ministry of Finance, 2008).

    PSI, on the other hand, grewat an average annual rate of 13%. Starting with an amountof Tk. 24,750 crores inFY1996-97, the PSI

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    Fig-10 : Import of Capital Good

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    Fig-11: Production Index of Tex tile and ReadymadeGarments during FY1995/96 to FY2004/05

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    increased consistenly every year, reaching Tk. 87,570 crores in FY05-06(Fig-9). This gives a very encouraging picture as regards the prospect of industrialization if planned efforts are geared to its growth (Ministry of Finance, March 2008).

    The quality of privateinvestment can be perceived bythe growth of capital goodsimports. Import of capitalgoods increased from US$ 582million in FY2001-02 toUS$1539 million in FY2005-06and US$ 1927 million inFY2006-07 (Fig-10) (Ministryof Finance, 2008).

    2.6 Garments & textiles emerged as lead export sectors

    One can easily notice from the Fig-11 that there has been a phenomenal growth in the production of readymade garments andtextiles as backward linkage industry. As evident from the figure thatthe index number of readymade garments has doubled or even morewithin ten years. The same is the case with the production index of textiles (Ministry of Finance, 2006).

    Readymade Garments isnow a lead sector in theexportable items. Thesector has already provedits sustainability byfacing successfully thevulnerable situationcreated by post-MFA

    phase-out. Consideringits further growth

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    Fig-12: Growth of Transport Sector inBangladesh

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    Fig-13: Remittances in Bangladesh

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    potential and the backward linkage impact on textile industries in thecountry, this sector can certainly work as one of the thrust sectors of the country for take-off of the economy.

    2.7 Transport and Communication Sectors Boom

    The country may be considered to be ready for take-off on another pleathat it has already come under extensive network of roadcommunication

    providing easy accessfor marketing facility

    within the countryand abroad. The process is still onwith the growth

    pattern of transportand communicationsector compared toGDP growth asnoticed in Fig-12. The transport and communication sector achieved agrowth rate of 8.24% in FY2006-07, which was 7.98% in previousyear (Ministry of Finance, March 2008).

    2.8 Steady Remittance earning from work force export

    There has been a spectacular growth of remittance earning in Bangladeshin the last five years(Fig-13). Remittancehas been one of theleading sectors for foreign exchangeearning, contributingsignificantly to the

    improvement of balanceof payments. It has atremendous potential to grow further and may contribute further in easingthe investment-saving gap of the country (Ministry of Finance, 2007).

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    3. Need for a Paradigm Shift: From MacroeconomicStabilization to Development Management

    3.1 Why Development Management rather than economicmanagement needed?

    Development is a multi-dimensional problem, of which economicdevelopment is one of the major concerns

    Economic development presupposes prior and/or simultaneous

    development of socio-political, cultural and environmentaldevelopment

    Economic development has been deviated from/de-linked toenvironmental development

    Development in all spheres is steered and managed by politicalauthority

    Politics itself needs to be developed for being conducive to economicdevelopment

    Development is ultimately an overall management problem involvingintegration of economic and non-economic factors such asmaintenance of law and order, good governance at all levels,

    promotion of appropriate socio-political and cultural attitude, skill andvision conducive to development, and formulation and application of

    pragmatic policies at home and abroad supporting economicdevelopment.

    All these call for a management concept, which is more than a conceptof economic management, comprising factors not only of economic

    but also the non-economic factors of social, political and culturalconcerns. That means, we need to develop a developmentmanagement framework having key variables capable to capture the

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    whole dynamics of development which can be eventually be used as progress monitoring tool.

    3.2 Development Management as a Framework

    Development management is something plus economic management, whenEconomic management or Macroeconomic management is expressed interms of Y1 = C + I + G + X M .... (1)

    Development management , on the other hand, may be expressed

    incorporating in the above equation few additional notations such as S, P,K and E, which may take the form as:

    Y2 = {(C + I + G + X M) (S, P, K, E)} .. (2)

    Where, S, P, K and E stand, respectively, for social, political, cultural andenvironmental factors. The difference between expressions 1 and 2 is thatthe latter has four extra factors influencing positively or negatively eachof the independent variables thereby finally shaping the dependentvariable Y. It means that managing S, P, K and E in a way conducive toindependent variables C, I, G, X and M produces a bigger Y i.e., makingY2 > Y 1. Alternatively, exertion of negative impact from any of the extrafour factors S, P, K and E will lead to a situation making Y 2 < Y1.

    It should be noted that while notations used in the expression 1 showquantitative relations between the independent variables (C, I, G, X andM) and dependent variable (Y), notations S, P, K and E depict qualitativechanges.

    3.2.1 Role of S in the Development Management Framework

    S , the social factor, is comprised of social investments, socialnorms/values/behaviours exerting impacts either positively or negativelyon the national income, Y. Social investment such as in education(particularly for girls) and in health (particularly in maternal health)contributes to human development leading to productivity enhancementand finally contributing positively to Y. Negative social values such asfatalism, undervaluation and repression of women, son preference and eve

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    teasing contributes negatively to the Y. On the other hand, patriotism,industriousness, achievement motivation, caring for others, religioustolerance etc. contributes positively to a higher Y.

    3.2.2 The P in the Development Management Framework

    Since P stands for political environment set by the political system andinstitutions, governance, political culture and the role of political actors, it(i.e., P) has a tremendous direct impact on development. Development of acountry is sometimes defined as the outcome of political management of theresources (natural, social, economic and human) of that nation. It means, the

    speed and quality of development also depends on the capability of politicalauthority in managing those resources. Speed and quality of development, onthe other hand, depends on the standard of vision and mission of a nation,which again come through the political process. Thus a political process,charged more and more with improved and renewed vision, sets new andnew missions for development. It is effectively the P, which greatlyinfluences all the variables in the right hand side of the Equation-2 finally

    putting effect on the Y.

    3.2.3 The K in the Development Management Framework

    Culture, K, plays a crucially important role in the development of a country.

    For any progress, native culture, if positive, can play a driving role towardsdevelopment. A nation confused with cultural identity can not progress rather it suffers from lack of motivation. To have benefited from a culture workingas driving force, a nation belonging to a particular culture must have fullconfidence and great love for it. Of course, the more the culture forms acomplete way of life, the more it is able to motivate the nation for its nation

    building. Islam, a divinely proclaimed complete code of life, if pursued, canlead humanity towards the highest level of development.

    3.2.4 The E in the Development Management Framework

    Any development effort today must be environment friendly. Otherwise, it is

    destined to be unsustainable. Therefore, any developmental effort to besustainable must be conducive to eco-system maintaining balance in thenature. Otherwise, the development would have environmental costs therebyoutweighing development benefits.

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    4. Need for setting a strategic development vision forBangladeshBangladesh has an expressed vision of poverty reduction documented in thePoverty Reduction Strategy Framework of its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The vision is expected to be realized under a macroeconomic environment of pro-poor growth through strategies like (a) boostingcritical sectors such as agriculture, rural non-farm activities, water resource development and management, small and medium sizeenterprises, informal sector, rural infrastructures and development of ICT;(b) effective safety-net programmes; and (c) ensuring social developmentThis is a medium-term strategic policy agenda for the goal of accelerated

    poverty reduction constituted of the following eight points :

    Employment Nutrition Quality education (particularly primary, secondary and vocational

    levels with strong emphasis on girls education) Local governance Maternal health Sanitation and Safe water Criminal justice Monitoring

    The above-mentioned 8-points strategic policy agenda form the PolicyTriangle having the elements of:

    1. Nutrition, sanitation and safe water 2. Human development, and3. Governance

    The policy triangle is to work under the macroeconomic environment of (i) Accelerating Growth for Poverty Reduction; (ii) Employment andPoverty Reduction; (iii) Economic Growth, Investment and Savings; (iv)

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    Macroeconomic Stability, and (v) Facilitation of Fair and CompetitiveBusiness.

    This is neither sure nor spelt out anywhere in the PRSP that the vision of the Pro-Poor Growth would lead to take off of the economy within aspecific target period. Nor is anything said about the fulfillment of necessary conditions of the take-off anywhere in the PRSP document.That means Bangladesh should have a revised vision with a target periodof take-off that fits with the strategy for pro-poor growth. Without such avision, the country may suffer from shortage of self-esteem and resourcessufficient enough to work for an accelerated reduction of poverty.

    Thus without a desperate vision of take-off, the country may not achieveeven a moderate growth rate thereby keeping the goal of accelerated

    poverty reduction unrealized. Any way, Bangladesh needs a vision, adream to march forward, a target to reach desperately somewhere on andabove a soft target of accelerated poverty reduction.

    Establishing a hunger- and poverty-free nation very often uttered in public meetings of political parties is yet to translate into action plan.

    The vision of pro-poor growth, as set in the PRSP, is poor, because itregards growth as a usual phenomenon and tags it with the povertyreduction process. This will limit the growth as well as the take-off

    prospect of the economy and lock, instead of unlocking, the potential of an economy already trapped in poverty cycle. Rather, pro-poor growthcould have been one of the allied strategic missions of the countrys take-off vision making more sense to strategic planning. The country wants to

    be one of the middle-income countries of the world by 2020. But how?Does it not require a revised strategic planning setting a new vision avision of take-off?

    5. The country must have strategic missions fordevelopment

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    As mentioned above, pro-poor growth could be one of the strategicmissions under a vision of take-off. That means, instead of being visionitself, pro-poor growth could be one of the couple of strategic missions setunder the vision of take-off. If so, then what could be the other strategicmissions of our economy? We can list the following among the probablestrategic missions that we may have for our economy:

    1) Growth bringing the economy to the level of middle-incomecountries

    2) Nutrition, sanitation and safe water for everybody3) Human development4) Employment, and5) Governance

    5.1 Setting the countrys strategic direction of development

    A country setting its vision for development and accordingly devisingstrategic missions needs to strategize the direction of development. For this, it has to do the following:

    Creation of favorable environment for continuous higher investment

    Social movement for quality human development Motivating people to work for achieving prestige of the nation Governance for a prosperous economy and caring nation

    5.1.1 Creation of favourable policy environment for continuous higher investment

    For leading the country towards take-off, policies are to be formulated toattract both internal and external investment - one of the necessaryconditions for take-off. Monetary and fiscal policies are to be devisedtowards fulfilling the triangular objectives of macroeconomic stability,

    accelerated growth of the economy and poverty alleviation setting a proper distribution mechanism.

    5.1.2 Social movement for quality human development

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    Abundant human resources of Bangladesh may turn into a strategicadvantage if attention is paid to appropriate human development and

    planned exploitation of the current work force export potentials. This cancontribute to the bridging of investment gap by attracting more foreign

    private investment and enhanced remittance earning. A judiciously planned social movement for quality human development would therefore be utterly needed. The expected social movement should ensure a kind of human development that incorporates values of work culture, labour

    productivity and vision for developing the country.

    5.1.3 Motivating people to work for raising the prestige of the nation

    The country needs dreamers who have dreams with our country andmotivate the nation to dream and work for it transforming it into a

    prestigious nation. The dreamers have to be honest in thinking and practice and be examples for others. The human development process of the country should have a built-in mechanism to create dreamers of suchrequisite quality so that we can have continuously these visionaries acrossgenerations.

    5.1.4 Governance for a prosperous economy and caring nationGovernance should not be merely for governances sake. It should gear upadministrative support services needed for an emerging economy seeking

    prosperity and taking care of its people. For this, we need governmentmachinery free of corruption. Otherwise, governance may turn intooppression and counterproductive to development and progress.

    6. To have strategic actions in place for the take-off

    The country would require a modification in the PRS Framework in order to fit it to the requirement of the proposed Development ManagementParadigm with a vision of Take-off. This can be done by revising the

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    current PRS Framework in its Vision and the Strategic Block-1 asdepicted in the following section.

    6.1 Shaping overall development paradigm

    The newly proposed Development Management Paradigm would have achanged vision i.e., Take-off , in place of Poverty Reduction as mentionedin the PRS Framework. Accordingly, the revised strategic blocks 1 & 2should be read as Ensuring higher investment for accelerated growthand Boosting critical sectors for take-off. These two strategic blockswould now work as a get-in-through for take-off.

    6.2 Patterning socio-political management

    In spite of introducing a participatory process in the preparation of thePRSP, the document has been largely a technocratic one failing to bring inits fold the politicians. Whatever might be the vision of the economy, itmust come through the window of politics particularly from the political

    party in power. This is because the politicians coming through anelectoral process represent the country and they are the real development

    Take-off

    Vision for Development Management (DM)Key issues inbuilding strategies

    Four StrategicBlocks

    Block I

    Ensuringhigher

    Investment for Accelerated

    Growth

    Block II

    BoostingCritical Sectorsfor Take-off

    Block III

    Devising EffectiveSafety Nets & Targeted

    Programs for povertyeradication

    Block IV

    EnsuringSocial

    Development

    M e d i um- t er m

    M a c r o e c on

    omi c f r am

    ew

    or k

    M oni t or i n

    g an

    d E v

    al u

    a t i on

    of

    DM I m

    pl em

    en

    t a t i on

    Four SupportingStrategies

    Ensuring Participation, Social Inclusion and Improvement

    Promoting Good Governance

    Providing Service Delivery

    Caring for Environment and Sustainable Development

    Consultation at Various Levels

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    managers. Thus, any strategic planning for a nation must involve the politicians in order to have the vision of the economy owned andimplemented by them. For the same reason, they must be an integral partof any strategic planning process. It is noted that the vision of theeconomy should be a common one shared and owned by each citizen of the country. The politicians should be able to motivate the nationaccordingly.

    6.3 Putting new macroeconomic management in place

    The macroeconomic policy package as suggested in the PRSP needs to be

    revised to meet the requirement of the economys new vision, i.e., take-off . Similarly, changes are to be made in the policy objectives andstrategies formulated in the macro chapter of PRSP.

    6.4 Having a linked microeconomic management/sectoralmanagement

    There must be reformulation in the sectoral objectives and strategies aswell in the current PRSP so that each individual agent of the economyresponds to the macro policy objectives of attaining the national visionunder the new Development Management Framework.

    6.5 Aligned effective governance

    Governance also should be tuned to the requirement of achieving the newvision. It should be pro-growth, pro-poor and pro-people. The wholegovernance process must uphold the norm of developing an enablingenvironment for take-off and helping the people to work for that.

    7. Conclusion and Recommendations

    Bangladesh has the potentials to take-off. Many of the preconditions arealready met. Among these are the very high investment-GDP ratio,extensive network of road and telecommunication, reawakening of manufacturing sectors along with readymade garments as the lead sector having key backward linkage with textile industries. Recent improvementin the law and order situation with the tendency of sustenance may be

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    added in the list of preconditions for take-off. However, the major wanting factor remaining is the lack of quest for take-off by the politicalauthority, i.e., the vision and mission for take-off. It needs badly goodgovernance. Further, the country needs a paradigm shift in managing itseconomy, i.e., from macroeconomic management to developmentmanagement. The recently launched PRSP requires a thorough revision tomake it fit to the requirements of new paradigm, the DevelopmentManagement. It requires exercising another strategic planning on take-off involving the political authority in power and in opposition along with thetechnocrats based on take-off as the new vision of development for theeconomy.

    REFERENCES

    1. Akkas, S. M. Ali (2005). Macro Management of Bangladesh Economy: RecentShocks and Immediate Policy Interventions. Thoughts on Economics, Vol. 15

    No. 1 & 2, January-June 2005. Islamic Economics Research Bureau, Dhaka.

    2. Akkas, S. M. Ali (1992). National Economic Management and Budget 1992-93. Thoughts on Economics , Vol. 1 No. 1, 1992. Islamic EconomicsResearch Bureau, Dhaka.

    3. Ministry of Finance, Finance Division, Economic Advisor Wing. BangladeshEconomic Survey , March 2008.

    4. Ministry of Finance and Planning, Planning Commission, General EconomicsDivision: Bangladesh, Unlocking the Potentials, National Strategy forAccelerated Poverty Reduction , October 2005.

    5. Rostow, W. W. (1960). The Stages of Economic Growth . London: CambridgeUniversity Press.

    6. Thirlwall, A. P.(1994). Growth and Development with Special Reference toDeveloping Economies , Fifth Edition, ELBS with Macmillan, UK, 1994.