Pomp and ceremony will come and go and there’s yet plenty of time to crow about vainglorious victory; but before the day passes irretrievably I’d like to wish my fellow native Bangladeshis a happy Victory Day. May all our days, yours and mine, be driven toward a better future, with more than a passing glance […]
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has come to help Bangladesh’s economy grow in the short to medium term, even as donor countries have begun to the belt on their fiscal and monetary policy. In consultation with the Finance Minster, the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisor, Bangladesh Bank and other major institutional stake-holders, the IMF has proposed […]
At least 22 people have died, with over a 100 injured in a garments factory gone ablaze. The Daily Star reports that many other factory workers remained trapped in the factory located in the outskirts of Dhaka. This news comes at the heels of new deadly protests and street fights over the implementation of the […]
Earlier today the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) cleared Grameen Bank’s moves to supply its private arm with development funds targeted for its non-profit works. The Minister of the Environment and International Development, Erik Solheim, the official who commisioned a Norad report on this affair offered this assessment: “There is no indication that Norwegian funds […]
If it weren’t already enough that the Norwegian government is trying to investigate Grameen Bank’s books from some fifteen years ago, now the local government, just down the street, sitting in Parliament is out for some explanations from Grameen Bank’s founder Dr. Mohammad Yunus. Sheikh Hasina has chastised Dr. Yunus for the micro-credit business model […]
There’s a new brew simmering in Bangladesh. It’s made of allegations, recriminations and excuses. This brew has to do with acts committed by the venerable founder Dr. Mohammad Yunus some fifteen years ago. This brew threatens to irreparably mar microcredit institutions, the poverty alleviation regime that over the last several years has gone private, virally, […]
I’ve written on this before; now, sadly, I’m writing on this again, so here goes: I could not then, cannot now and will not, ever, defend the jerked, jolting way that every instrument of industry, learning and commerce in Bangladesh has shuttered for the second time this month just because one lady with political pull […]
Given all this budget slashing, all that bail-outing, leaders of the European Union have promised Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that funds pledged to Bangladesh for the European Union Climate Change Adaptation Fund would be delivered. Bangladesh is something of a case study for devising policy and infrastructure to combat the consequences of global cliamte change; […]
Whilst Khaleda Zia has been trying to gin up support for her country-wide protest movement to ring out against the sitting Awami League government, ostensibly for leading the country toward ruin, she has been chucked out of her house. In her stead, the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina has used any availing opportunity to shame her near-life […]
The recent news that India’s microcredit industry is in dire straits should trouble Bangladeshi policy makers. Through a combination of credit-overreach and political demagoguery, Indian banks are facing the prospect of a wave of microcredit loan defaults. Given the nearly $4 billion risk exposure that banks have undertaken in entering into the recently booming microcredit […]
The fight over forced homelessness of one by the other has gone beyond personal and political rivalry between Sheikh Hasina and Begum Zia. BNP supporters have called a strike this weekend and took to the streets to protest Khaleda Zia’s eviction from her cantonment home; police have beat back party activists, and failing to do […]
The 2010 Human Development Index is out. It offers some good news for Bangladesh. Though Bangladesh ranked 129 among 169 UN members states (out of a possible 192 states in the world), it ranked 3rd in terms of improvement since 1980 in its assessed Human Development Index, itself a weighted average of education, wealth and […]
It had to come sometime. The major international financial organizations, like the World Bank and the IMF, have long lauded the successful moves of the stewards of Bangladesh’s economy. Now Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken credit for that stewardship. She made the claim during Governor of Oregon Ted Kulongoski’s visit to Bangladesh. I suppose […]
This is a fine thing: Rushanara Ali, the Labour MP from Bethnal Green and Bow (and the Shadow Minister for international development) met the two opposing leaders of the two major parties in Bangladesh. She declared that the ruling Conservative government would not cut its financial assistance to Bangladesh. Ms. Ali and the Prime Minister […]
The latest World Bank economic data are now available and they indicate a strong, growing economy for a stronger, more prosperous Bangladesh. The politics seem to be catching up, though some dark clouds yet remain on the horizon. At 5.8% annual growth, the Bangladeshi economy outpaced the U.S economy’s growth, itself at a startlingly weak […]