What are the political and establishment features of the ‘show and tell’ for Bangladesh development future, even as she flags her agenda of Smart Bangladesh? What can be read off regarding Bangladesh future arising from her present development outlook? The lessons on these fronts can be derived from the well-known socio-economic debates that have prevailed for a long time now.
Economic growth and development as macroeconomic indicators are based on the measure of real Gross Domestic Product, which in turn is an accounting variable in the national income and expenditure model of national accounts. It is well-known that, the real GDP has no important relationship with indicators such as, the socially equitable allocation of resources, social security, and issues of poverty alleviation and human development. These variables are not categorized by the self-regulatory micro entrepreneurial factors of development in which socio-economic participation plays an empowering role of ethics in development. Indeed, notable development economists have asserted that, the ethical overview of resource formation, its maintenance and equitable distribution, form the factors of development legitimacy.
Without the actualization of the micro entrepreneurial goals, legitimacy of the development future falls apart as demeaning separated pockets of competing groups for scarce resources in nation building. In the face of the political element in development, the macroeconomic perspective of socio-economic development is driven by the focus on economic growth. The distributional problem of social security, poverty alleviation, and human resource development, and the like, lose pronounced attention. Political institutions thereby, focus upon a mode of disjoint development planning between sectors �" urban versus rural; efficiency versus distributive equity; capitalization versus social inclusiveness of the development paradigm. Thereby, the fortunate few reap the fruits of efficient resources allocation into capital development by substituting capital investments for social security. The measure of GDP hides this social enigmatic fact. Social security is defined here as the resource formation, and its maintenance, and distribution, for sustaining the wellbeing of all by the conscious self-regulatory attribute of participatory development.
When economic growth and development is so viewed by the professional
and political establishments as detached pockets of competing sectors
for resource allocation, then economic policies too, become socially
disengaged.
When economic growth and development is so viewed by the professional and political establishments as detached pockets of competing sectors for resource allocation, then economic policies too, become socially disengaged. The goals of economic efficiency and distributive equity, capital development and the human premise of poverty alleviation, become competing goals of the professional and political authorities. The understanding of development planning gets skewed in the direction of the yield of economic growth. This development consequence marks the great trade-off between economic efficiency and distributive equity. Thereby, the political establishment intensifies capital formation in mega-projects. The result is marginalization of the goal of social security, which is marked by poverty-alleviation and participative socio-economic development planning for the common social wellbeing.
The emerging capitalist establishment and its prescriptive outlook on development, further enhanced by development organizations, formulate the policy choices on the desired preferences based on the similar outlook of sectoral and agent-specific competition for scarce resources to meet competing ends. The lure for capital development predominates in the spree of capitalist financialization. The inter-sectoral coexistence by participative development is side-tracked. The nation gets impoverished in its social aspects.
The nature of Bangladesh development outlook requires objective evaluation in reference to the above-mentioned kind of myopic focus on economic efficiency contra social justice in the name of economic growth. Capital investment in mega-projects is found to give a false picture of the wellbeing objective future, wherein a participative role of efficiency and distributive equity can be sustained. Inter-sectoral participative linkages are sustained by the resource-based regenerative nature of the rural-urban sectoral, appropriate technology and human-resource development, all in the perspective of participatory development avoiding marginalist disengagement.
A cursory examination of the present unsustainable consequences of debt-ridden mega-capital projects in Bangladesh proves the prevalence of the myopic nature of development planning given its emphasis on economic efficiency and growth. The result is marginalizing of attention on social security and wellbeing by participatory social enterprise.In the absence of human development for the common good of wellbeing, the avoidance of the true development paradigm clouds the Bangladesh prospects of moral-material sustainability.
Here is an overview on Bangladesh development future under her pursuit of Unnayan contra Kalyan program:The political and technocratic establishment usually makes the argument concerning the primacy of focus on economic growth that, once growth is established then the fruits of this achievement will flow towards elevating wellbeing. Poverty alleviation would then follow upon the gains of economic growth. This argument has never proved true. That is because development resources in the capitalist environment, remain scarce.And in the context of economic growth with the urban sector focus on industrialization, resource use remains skewed in this direction of growth and development at the cost of MPI (Multidimensional Poverty Index). The percentage feature of MPI in terms of percentage of population in MPI in terms of ‘headcounts and deprivation’ in Bangladesh proves this fact.
Economic growth focus relents on indebtedness to foreign direct investment and competing capitalism. Bangladesh in its frenzy for economic growth is now one of the most indebted nations in the world. Her debt/GDP ratio has increased from 27 percent in 2017 to 31.7 percent in 2021. For the same period, accounting for inflationary level, the growth of real per capita GDP would be lower than its decline by 5.78 percent in 2020 from 2019. If this trend continues in an indebted climate of economic growth, the development trend will cease to be sustainable. Thereby, the trade-off on poverty will worsen. Bangladesh will decrease in her social security net. That is because of constrained revenue stimulation from taxes in a deprived social state.
In conclusion, the resulting marginalist trade-off situation between wellbeing and growth in the milieu of capitalist development obsession in Bangladesh future appears to be a long-term trend, given her economic and social history amid resource scarcity caused by diversion into mega-projects and their maintenance cost. Continuing inequality and disparity of allocative efficiency between contesting groups in society at large, will prevail. Smart Bangladesh, unless actualized amid a participatory development paradigm integrating Unnayan and Kalyan, will fail as a moral fiasco, given her capitalist growth focus in a developing nation stand.
The writer is a retired professor Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia, Canada
