Articles

Bangladesh becoming a middle income country by 2010

Faruque Hasan

One needs not to be over enthusiast to predict that Bangladesh will become a middle income country by the year of 2010. The possibility of Bangladesh to become a middle income country in a couple of years is not a wishful thought, but a future reality. The prediction is based on solid data of economic performances of the country in the recent past.

According to the latest national accounts data published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the per capita income in Bangladesh has leaped up to US dollar 599 at the end of the last fiscal year — July 2007 to June 2008 — from its previous fiscal year's US dollar 523. It means in the last fiscal year (FY) per capita income marked a rise by nearly 14 percent compared to the per capita income of its previous FY (2006-07). The rise of per capita income was 12 percent in FY 2006-07. If Bangladesh can keep up the present pace of annual growth rate of per capita income, then at the end of this FY 2008-09 the income will go above US dollar 680; and at the end of the FY 2009-2010, it will be no less than US dollar 770. A country achieves the status of a middle income country when its per capita income crosses the threshold of US dollar 750.

Apparently there is no cause why Bangladesh will not be able to maintain its present annual growth rate of per capita income in coming years as well. Rather every sign is there that the growth rate will accelerate further in the near future.

In last two fiscal years the per capita income in Bangladesh marked the healthy rise due to high growth of remittance sent by non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs). Their number at present is more than fifty hundred thousand. Last year the country received remittances amounting to USD 6.56 billion from NRBs working abroad. The remittance sent by the NRBs is an export earning for the country; because that is earned in foreign exchange by exporting manpower. Though Bangladesh is one of the major manpower exporting countries in the world, we could not reap, for a long time, the benefit of the toil of our NRBs on the foreign soils. Until a few years back it was the illegal hundi traders, who used to control the eighty percent of the remittance sent by NRBs to their relatives at home. Fortunately, those days are almost gone; and the country is getting benefited from manpower export by almost eliminating hundi trade in remittance sector.

Not only our manpower export has been growing fast keeping pace with the time, our other exports are also showing better performances. According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), exports of the country showed, during the first ten-months period of the last FY, a growth of 14.66 percent compared to the exports during the corresponding period of its previous FY.

One of the main pillars of our export earnings is the readymade garments sector (RMG. And the country expects to maintain a 20 percent annual export growth of RMG products up to year of 2013. Bangladesh is now the world's 5^th largest producer of textiles and garments. Belying the predictions by the ‘experts’, both international and national, that the garments industry in Bangladesh would be declining fast in the post-MFA period that means after the year of 2004. Contrary to their painstaking research findings, RMG industry in the country is now growing rapidly as the country has become a lucrative place for RMG outsourcing for the European and American buyers.  The experts’ opinion sent a wave of fear among the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs and slowed down the growth of RMG industry in the country during the years of 2002-5.

Side by side with the RMG industry, the textile industry in Bangladesh is also showing prospect of substantive growth. From the time immemorial till to the mid-nineteenth century Bangladesh and only Bangladesh used to produce the finest cotton fabric, Muslin, which had markets across the world. The Industrial Revolution in Europe as well as the colonial policy destroyed the Muslin industry in Bangladesh. It now seems the good old days are coming back. Textile industry in Bangladesh has been growing fast as a backward linkage to its export-oriented garments industry. Denim and knit fabrics produced in Bangladesh can now meet the demand of its woven and knit industries. Regarding the other fabrics, country’s textile industry can meet eighty two percent demand of our export oriented RMG industry.

Not only manpower and RMG industry will remain the mainstay of our exports in the future; our pharmaceutical and shipbuilding industries are ready to contribute big chunks to our export basket. Bangladesh is now in the map of the mainline pharmaceutical industries of the world.  Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies are exporting medicines to the UK, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Philippines, Honk Kong, Bhutan, Jordan, as well as to some African countries.

Last year Bangladeshi pharmaceutical companies have made inroads into the lucrative business of contract manufacturing of bulk drugs and formulations for global clients including European major pharmaceutical companies—British, German, and Dutch. There is a possibility that this industry in the country will grow bigger then its garments industry in near future.

The most encouraging news for Bangladesh economy is that, in this year Bangladesh has, once again, emerged as a ship exporting country. At present the export oriented shipbuilding industry in the country is growing in quick paces. Bangladesh shipyards are now building ships for Denmark, Germany, Japan, and Mozambique. In a couple of years, export oriented shipbuilding in Bangladesh will turn into a multi-billion dollar industry.

The country has got very old long history of shipbuilding. A ship built in Bangladesh took part in the Battle of Trafalgar as a member of the British fleet. Shipyards at Chittagong in nineteenth century built ships for Turkey and Germany. The colonial policy destroyed the shipbuilding industry in Bangladesh; and the shipbuilders in the country have built ships, for the last hundred and fifty years, only to meet the domestic demand.

Bangladesh, being a reverine country, has hundreds of shipyards with thousands of skilled, semiskilled shipbuilding workers. Only proper attention from the government policy makers to this budding industry may make Bangladesh one of the leading shipbuilding nations in the world in a short time.

The estimates show that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Bangladesh has grown by 6.21 percent in the last fiscal year, which ended on June 30. The country has been able to maintain GDP growth rate above six percent for the last three consecutive years. This growth rate though not amazing, but substantive and encouraging.

Bangladesh may achieve a double-digit GDP growth rate only if uninterrupted power supply to the industries can be ensured by the government. It is the force of the people and the private entrepreneurs who will push forward the economy of the country. Inert, sluggish and carefree bureaucracy, below the standard as well as inefficient political leadership, and corruption at different levels may impede, to some extent, but won’t be able to stop Bangladesh to attend the status of a middle income country by the year of 2010.

One may wonder what the world media will do when Bangladesh becomes a middle income country in a couple of years. Even today when per capita income in Bangladesh is US dollar 599, the world media never miss an opportunity to utter the phrase ‘the poorest country in the world’ whenever they mention the name of Bangladesh. Attention may be drawn here to the fact that the per capita income in Bangladesh is US dollar 599 when it is calculated by Atlas method; but when it is calculated by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) method, our per capita income was US dollar 2,200 in the year of 2006 as shown on the fact book of the CIA.

Exorbitant oil price, which is predicted to cross US dollar 200 per barrel in near future, will hamper our economic growth. But our ray of hope is our coal deposit. A recent UNDP-Bangladesh report says that the country has the estimated resources of 2.5 billion tonnes of coal which are equivalent to 65 trillion cubic feet of gas.  These reserves can assure energy security for the country in the medium and long-term.

A tremendous foreign pressure was on us to export gas; we have somehow resisted that pressure. Now the pressure is being exerted on us to export coal. We must also resist this pressure. At least for the time being our coal is not for export; we will need that badly to keep the wheels of our economy moving on in the face of soaring oil price and turbulent international situation.

In its Global Economics Paper published on December 1, 2005, Goldman Sachs economic researchers of the USA have predicted that Bangladesh will become the 22^nd largest economy in the world by the year of 2025. At present Bangladesh economy stands at 48^th among the economies of 179 countries by the volume of its total annual GDP calculated by PPP at US dollar 206,658 million (est. 2007, IMF). We may genuinely hope that Bangladesh may even stand at 15^th or 16^th on the map of world economy by the end of the first quarter of the twenty first century.     5.7.08

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  Bangladesh drowning: A reality or a myth?

(Published in Daily Star on Wednesday, April 2, 2007 )

Faruque Hasan

Once again Bangladesh has been made the worst example, this time of the impacts of global warming. It is being said, one-third of Bangladesh will go under seawater in next 50 years due to the sea level rise being caused by the climate change. Drowning of Bangladesh is now a hot topic in the international arena.

No denying that a great part of Bangladesh, the largest delta in the world, is low lying, very usual for a delta. But when we talk of the impacts of global warming on Bangladesh, we must not forget or ignore the fact that it's a dynamic delta and its landmass is still growing, at the same time the land being raised by gradual deposition of silt.

Due to global warming, to which the contribution of Bangladesh is minimal, the rate of local relative sea level rise is 7 mm a year around the coastal areas of the country. An alarming trend indeed for the future, but this is only the one side of the coin. The other side is that the average sediment accumulation rate for the last few hundred years in the coastal areas of Bangladesh is 5-6 mm a year. What we see is that the sea level rises 7 mm/year and the land rises 5-6 mm/year; it means the relative sea level rise in the coastal areas of Bangladesh is 1-2 mm/year. The elevation of the Barisal town, which stands only at a distance of about 90 kilometers from the coastline, is 3 meters above Mean Sea Level. So to reach up to Barisal town level, the sea will take 1,000 (one thousand) years, if its level rises at 3 mm/year. This is one aspect of the picture; and the other aspect is that the coastline of Bangladesh is not static, rather progressing outward due to the fact that tremendous amount of silt being deposited on the shore in the Meghna estuary, causing land accretion.

Each year about 2.4 billion tons of sediment from the Himalayas is carried by the rivers of Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal, and deposited on the continental shelf causing accretion of land to the coast of the country. The high sediment load results in a net accretion of about 35 square kilometers of land per year to Bangladesh.

Satellite pictures say of new land measuring no less than 20,000 (twenty thousand) square kilometers being formed in the Bay of Bengal in the coastal zones of Bangladesh.

Inhabitants on our coastal islands, Neejhum Deep, Char Kukrimukri, Char Jabbar etc, know that how every year new shoals in our coastal zones are coming up, and how the water is getting more and more shallow between these shoals. We know Bangladesh has been formed over tens of thousands of years through the settling down of sediment on the bed of the Bay. Only about three thousand years back one of our seaports was near Gopalganj in Faridpur district. We can see how far the coastline of our country has extended during the last three millennia.

Unfortunately, the land formation at the western coastal zone of the country has almost stopped due to the presence of the Swath of no Ground with a depth of more than 200 fathoms, which starts a few kilometers south of the Sundarbans forest coastline. The depth of the sea at our coast is five to ten fathoms. This Swath of no Ground swallows up the sediment load carried out to the Bay by the rivers thus hindering new land formation in this coastal zone. But the central and eastern regions of our coast are very active in terms of formation of new lands as these dynamic regions are shallow in depth.

Certainly global warming is a great threat not only to Bangladesh, but to the whole world; and we must fight against this threat hand in hand with rest of the world. We must make all our efforts to stop further warming up of the global climate, and then get it cooling down; but we, the people of Bangladesh, must not lend our ear to those painting a very gloomy picture saying Bangladesh is going to be the worst effected country, whose one-third or a big part will go under sea due to global warming in next 50 years.

Some people and organisations are always ready to paint a gloomy picture of Bangladesh. They make our country as the worst example of any bad consequence or situation. As a result the country has earned a very bad image in the international arena. This bad image directly hampers our economic progress.

They invariably utter the phrase, 'the poorest country in the world.' On the list of the countries of the world sorted by their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which has been prepared by the IMF, Bangladesh stands 58th with GDP to the tune of USD 64,854 million among 180 countries. On the same sort of list prepared by the World Bank, Bangladesh stands at 56th among 183 countries. Again, on the three lists of the countries sorted by their GDP on the basis of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), which have been prepared by IMF, World Bank and CIA, Bangladesh ranks at 33, 49, and 31 respectively among 179, 145 and 227 countries; how come Bangladesh is the poorest country in the world?

Due to the bad image of the country, we receive minimal foreign direct and indirect investments. For the same cause we receive virtually no tourist, though these days tourism is the number one global export item, and our country can be the haven of ecotourism. (Tourism earns foreign exchange for a country, so it is considered as an export.)

Some of us may join the chorus that say Bangladesh is drowning due to global warming with the hope of getting some aid for the country from the rich countries by evoking sympathy in them. What we need is not such dole money, but investment and tourism to make big strides forward in our economic progress. Seeking aid or dole money does not go with the sense of self-dignity.

At this moment our serious problem is not the rising of the sea level, but the explosion of population. Due to population explosion people of our country are compelled to live near the coast, on the newly formed shoals, and lose their lives helplessly when a cyclone or a tidal surge hits the coast.

Two centuries back European countries were suffering from population boom. Fortunately for them the excess people of those countries had the opportunity to migrate, in big number, to the 'new lands' like America, Australia, and Latin America. Nowadays the scope of migration in big number has ceased. So we have no other way, but to control the population explosion.

The other day a fish vendor told me, his grand fathers were two brothers, his father and uncles were four, and now his brothers and cousins are 28 in number. What a scaring picture of population explosion!

Some people term our annual flood as dreadful, but it is not indeed. The flood makes our soil fertile for better harvest, raises the land up gradually by millimeters each year. Otherwise a boon the flood becomes dreadful because the total population of the country is disproportionate to the total area of the land. By population we are the 8th largest nation in the world, by land area, 93rd.

If we can stop the population explosion, we will be able to live keeping safe distance from the coast. When a cyclone hits our costal districts we die in hundreds, our houses get destroyed, because they are made of bamboo and reed. Economic progress will make us able to build our houses high and with brick. Then the storm won't be able to blow us like grass and twigs. We live in a delta, the largest delta in the world, a dynamic delta growing bigger and higher; we must know how to live in safety and with dignity.

There's the glaring example of the Netherlands in front of us. About half of the land area in the Netherlands lies at or below sea level. The Dutch built dikes around swampy or flooded land and then pumped the water out. Several major rivers of Europe flow through the Netherlands into the sea. The country has few natural resources, and its lands are poor for agriculture. But the Dutch have struggled to make their country one of the wealthiest in the world.
 

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Science 2 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5876, p. 595
DOI: 10.1126/science.320.5876.595

Read the Full Text

So close two neighbors

(Published in Daily Star on Tue. December 27, 2005 , 2007 )

Faruque Hasan

The relationship between China and Bangladesh, so close two neighbours, can be traced back in the history of the last no less than two thousand years. When Bangladesh was born, as a land, from the womb of the sea, about ten thousand years ago, the first people who settled down on this new land came from Tibet, crossing the Himalayas.

The first Chinese traveler to Bangladesh, whose name appears first in the written history, was Faxian or Fa-hien (334-420). He visited Bangladesh at the beginning of the fifth century. The next and the most renowned Chinese traveler who extensively traversed through Bangladesh was Yuan Chwang (Huanzang) (596-664). He came to this country in the year of 638, spent as long as seven years, and left in the year of 645. After him, another great Chinese traveler, whose name was Seng-Chi, visited the eastern part of Bangladesh at the end part of the seventh century.

The travelogues written by all these Chinese travelers are considered as one of the most important sources of information of our past to write down the ancient history of Bangladesh.

During the ancient times, many Chinese travelers came to Bangladesh, but it was not one-way traffic. History says that Shanta Raskhit, a learned man from Bangladesh, went to Tibet in the middle of the seventh century. The next name that comes up is Atisha Dipankar. He was born in Bikrampur -- a place not far from Dhaka. In his late age, he went to Tibet in the year 1071. He lived for thirteen years in Tibet and died over there. Atisha was a religious teacher like his predecessor, Shanta Raskhit, but he also helped Tibetans with technical know-how to build water reservoirs.

It is said that Atisha was the first man from Bangladesh as well as from the South Asian subcontinent who sipped the herbal drink, tea. On his arrival to Tibet, when he was offered the blackish drink -- it was the black tea, not the green one -- he was not sure whether to drink it or not. But having had a sip, he found the drink invigorating, and became fond of it for the rest of his life.

During the middle ages, a very good relationship evolved between the royal courts of the two countries, Bangladesh and China.

When Giasuddin Azam Shah (1393-1409) was the ruler of Bangladesh with his capital at Sonargaon -- now a ruined city locate at a distance of only 18 km from Dhaka, a delegation was sent to his court by the then Chinese Emperor, Younglo, with a lot of precious gifts. Two of the emissaries in the Chinese delegation were Chengho and Chinghung. A Chinese interpreter, Ma-Huan, was with the royal delegation. He was a Muslim Chinese. He wrote a travelogue on his visit to Bangladesh.

Seeing the high fertility of the soil of Bangladesh, a unanimous Chinese traveler, who accompanied Ma-Huan, wrote: "The seven heavens have spread gold on the soil of this country."

To return the visit to Bangladesh by the Chinese delegation, a delegation from the court of the ruler of this country went to China in 1409; of course with a lot of precious gifts for the Chinese emperor.

The next Chinese royal delegation came to Bangladesh in the year of 1415, under the leadership of Chou-Shien. The delegation came in a large fleet and anchored at Chittagong port. From there it came to Sonargaon, the then capital of Bangladesh. At that time, Sonargaon was also a very big river port; and many Chinese ships, along with ships from many other countries, with merchandises used to visit this port regularly. Ibn Batuta, the famous Moroccan traveler of the fifteenth century, boarded on a Chinese ship from this port to travel to Java in Indonesia.

At present, Bangladesh and China are close friends. We have seen that in the past the relationship between the two countries was as cordial as it is now. The direct flight between Dhaka and Kunming has brought these two friendly countries even closer. It takes only two hours by air from Dhaka to Kunming.

The construction of a highway of 900 km in length, following the ancient Silk Route, through Myanmar, may boost the tourism, trade, and commerce between the two countries. It will bring the peoples of the two countries closer.

We welcome to our country, the members of the Chinese delegation that has embarked on a road trip following the ancient Silk Route between the two countries through Myanmar, and has reached Bangladesh at Teknaf this month.

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Let's import gas from Myanmar

(Published in Daily Star on April 27, 2007 )

Faruque Hasan

Fast growing economies like India, China, and Thailand have been importing natural gas, and will continue to do so in the future to keep the wheels moving.

Yes, we are also one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The World Bank fact sheet 2005-2006 says that Bangladesh is the tenth most rapidly growing economy among 31 developing countries.

In its Global Economics Paper, issue number 134 published on December 1, 2005, Goldman Sachs has placed Bangladesh among the "next 11" countries, after Brazil, Russia, India, and China, which have the potential to be substantial economies in the next decade.

Against all odds, our country is showing encouraging economic growth thanks to the intelligent and enterprising people. With a corruption free administration, uninterrupted power supply and efficient ports, our annual economic growth rate will certainly reach double-digit. Robust growth of the economy will make Bangladesh an energy-hungry country. What are we thinking of to meet our growing energy needs and energy security?

A couple of years ago, we were told by our friends to export gas to India; as if Bangladesh would always remain an industrially backward country, and our requirement for energy would never increase, therefore, we should remain happy with some earning from exporting our natural gas.

It is high time now to think seriously about importing natural gas, keeping in mind that our reserves are dwindling fast. Natural gas is not only cheaper, it is also environment friendly. We can import it from Myanmar.

It was reported few days back that, according to the adviser to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, our total proven natural gas reserve is large enough to satisfy the domestic demand till 2011. It is alarming information, as we have a notion that our country is floating on natural gas.

Bangladesh, which has 20.28 tcf gas reserve, ranks 40th in the world in terms of proven gas deposits. Of this, we have already used 6 tcf. The country will be looking for more and more fuel as demand soars with rapid economic growth; and our small reserve of natural gas will be used up in less than a decade.

In 2005, India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar agreed in principle to cooperate in a gas exploration and overland pipeline project. The pipeline would run from Arakan state in Myanmar, through Mizoram and Tripura, and cross Bangladesh before reaching Calcutta.

Both Bangladesh and India would have the right to access the pipeline as and when required, including injecting and siphoning off their own natural gas. The pipeline would bring gas reserves from the Shwe Field's Block A-1 site on the Arakan coastline along the Bay of Bengal.

This pipeline would also help Bangladesh to supply gas from its own fields in the Sylhet region, as well as from Tripura, to Khulna and Jessore.

Bangladesh laid out some preconditions for letting the pipeline run through its territory. We demanded reduction of trade deficit between India and Bangladesh, transit for trading goods to and from Nepal and Bhutan, and India's permission to buy cheap hydropower from Bhutan and Nepal. India refused to accept the conditions, and is looking for a new route, Bangladesh.

India thought of eight alternative routes, bypassing Bangladesh, for importing gas from Myanmar. If the pipeline is laid through Bangladesh to West Bengal -- as was originally planned -- it would be 900km long and cost around Rs. 450 million.

If it is laid through the northeast, bypassing Bangladesh, the pipeline will be 500 km longer, and the additional cost will be to the tune of Rs. 250 million. But the transit fees to be paid by India to Bangladesh for allowing the pipeline to pass through its territory will offset the additional cost. The Indian government is, perhaps, unwilling to decide on that route for security reasons, as northeast India is under the grip of local insurgencies.

Seeing the uncertainty in execution of Myanmar-Bangladesh-India pipeline, Myanmar has declined to supply gas to that proposed pipeline. Instead, it has signed an agreement to sell 6.5 tcf from A-1 block reserve through an overland pipeline to Kunming (China) for 30 years.

Myanmar is still willing to supply gas to the proposed tri-nation gas pipeline from other gas blocks if Bangladesh and India are successful in ironing out their differences.

As the gas from A-1 block has been sold to China, we have to get it from block A-2, though at least 150 km additional pipeline will have to be laid to reach that gas field.

India may think that we should be happy with $125 million annually as transit fees from the pipeline, so we should not tag any conditions to it. But transit fees must not be our main concern. We are to forgo the conditions we tagged to the gas pipeline, not to earn the transit fees, but to use that pipeline to import gas at a cheaper price. Moreover, it is our moral duty to give transit to our neighbour, no matter whether it feels the same way or not.

According to the World Bank, the demand for electricity in Bangladesh is increasing at 500 MW a year, but according to the government it is 800 MW a year. The estimates are based on the present economic background. It will not be surprising if the demand increases in two to three years, to 2,000 MW a year, with charged up economic performance. To run power plants, we will need ever-increasing amounts of natural gas and coal. The domestic production of gas and coal will be unable to meet the requirement.

If India abandons the plan to import gas from Myanmar, then we are to go alone. The route from the Arakan coast into Bangladesh via Cox's Bazaar will be the easiest and shortest.

Moreover, this route has minimum hilly terrain. We may import gas through Bangladesh-Myanmar pipeline from that country's offshore block A-3. With the gas from Myanmar as fuel, power plants can be set up at Chittagong. We need power not only for industries, but also for irrigation of paddy fields.

Let us not dillydally, lest we lose the opportunity to access the gas at A-3 block. If the question of choice between the Myanmar-Bangladesh-India pipeline and the Myanmar-Bangladesh pipeline arises, then we must go for the first one; if no question of choice arises then we are to go for the second one.                                    

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Coal not for export

(Published in Daily Star on May 9, 2005 )

Faruque Hasan

Let us have a quick look at our energy resources. In the year 2004, the National Energy Policy estimated the country's total coal deposits to be at 2527 million tonnes. This includes estimates of deposits at four fields -- Barapukuria, Khalaspir, Phulbari and Jamalganj. Not all of these coals are recoverable. Of the total deposits, only 492 million tonnes, equivalent to 13.4 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas, are estimated to be recoverable. Extraction of the coal at Jamalganj is not yet economically viable at present energy prices as it lies at a depth of 1,000 meters under the ground. Deposits at Jamalganj are at least 1,000 million tones, and all are not recoverable. If recoverable deposits at Jamalganj are excluded from consideration, economically recoverable coal reserves in Bangladesh are below 300 million tones, which is equivalent to 8.1 TCF of natural gas.

Besides coal, the estimates of remaining recoverable reserves of natural gas in Bangladesh are in the range of 11-16 TCF.

The hydropower potential of the country is negligible. Bangladesh can at best produce 755 megawatt of electricity using its hydropower. Country's present installed hydropower capacity is 444 megawatt.

The picture of our coal and natural gas reserves and our hydropower potentials shows that our energy resources are very limited.

Tata has proposed to invest to the tune of US dollar 2.5 billion in steel, fertilizer and power projects in Bangladesh. (We should not go for any more fertilizer projects, which will use natural gas as the raw material.) According to Tata, Bangladesh can earn US $1 billion a year from Tata's proposed projects. We hope that from those projects, Tata will also be able to make decent profit, decent enough to encourage them to invest in a foreign country.

The Tata representatives have told that Bangladesh could save around 1.5 TCF of gas if Tata establishes a coal-based power station instead of a gas-based one. It is nice to know that, as we need to save our gas as much as possible.

Tata officials have expressed their interest to use coal from Barapukuria and the Phulbari coalmines for a power plant. Tata has also proposed the export of coal to India from Bangladesh, which will be carried by the wagons used for bringing raw materials for their steel plant in Chittagong. Under the backdrop of our scanty energy resources, we have strong reservation to this proposal of exporting coal from Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, with its 138 million population, and being on the brink of an industrial revolution, cannot think of exporting coal from its scanty energy resources.

Four-fifth of the people of Bangladesh still do not have access to electricity. The country needs 17,500 megawatt of installed power to attain the goal of electricity for all; at present the country can produce at best 4,000 megawatt.

The current annual oil import of Bangladesh varies from 3.5 to 3.7 million tonnes to meet some of its energy needs.

Annual GDP growth rate of Bangladesh for the last one decade has been 4.55 percent on average, not an encouraging figure. Last year growth rate was around 5.5 percent. At present our economy is at a stage of taking off, and there is every possibility that the country will achieve, very soon, a higher annual GDP growth rate, which may even surpass a rate of seven percent. Confrontational politics at home will not be able to hinder our country's economic progress for long.

We will be in need of our scanty natural resources to develop our own industrial sector, our own economy. We cannot indulge in the luxury of exporting our energy resources, when we ourselves are in dire need of every bit of that. No doubt, the domestic coal deposits will be playing an important role in meeting energy needs of the country. Coal will primarily be used in power generation.

If we had, in our country, the energy resources in abundance, we would not have any reservation in exporting them. What is the use of keeping natural resources buried under the ground?

Enormous pressure was put on Bangladesh to make it agree to export its natural gas. Somehow, we have been able to avert that pressure, it seems. We hope no quarter, this time, will put pressure to make us export our coal. We hope our policy makers will not opt for any quick bucks from exporting any of our limited energy resources.

It is nice to know that a US company has come up with the proposal of exploring coal mine and set up four power generation plants, 250 MW each, at different places of the country including Jamalganj; that means the company thinks using the coal of Jamalganj is economically viable.

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Four hundred years of Capital Dhaka 

(Published in The New Nation on 14.07.08)

Faruque Hasan 

This year, 2008 A.D., is the 400^th anniversary of Dhaka as a capital; though Dhaka as a town or an urban settlement is much older than it is as a capital. How old is Dhaka City is very difficult to say.  

King Srigupta of north Bangladesh laid down the foundation of the illustrious Gupta Empire (320-450 A.D.) of the Indian history. Harisen, the poet-laureate of Emperor Shamudragupta, who was the grandson of Srigupta, mentioned of ‘Dabaka’ in his eulogy for the Emperor, ‘Allahabad Prashasti’ written in the 4^th century A.D. Dabaka mentioned in that inscription is today’s Dhaka.  

King Ballal Sen, the second ruler of the Sena Dynasty (1195-1204 A.D.), built the Dhakeswari temple in Dhaka more than eight hundred years back from today. No trace of that temple can now be seen, but the four Siva temples erected by Raja Man Singh, the commander-in-chief of Emperor Akbar, at the site of that temple, in the wake of 17^th century still stand there. Man Singh stayed in Dhaka during the years 1602-04 A.D. while he was fighting against Isa Khan, the leader of the Bara Bhuiyn — the independent petty kings of Bangladesh.  

The oldest brick structure, which still exists in Dhaka City, is the one-dome Binot Bibi Mosque at Narinda, built in 1457 AD.  The second oldest brick structure of the Dhaka city is the Mirpur Majar mosque, also one domed, and built in 1480 AD. 

There was a big fort in Dhaka before it became the capital of Sube Bangla—a province of Mughal Empire. Mirza Nathan wrote in his book, Baharistan Ghaibi, that Dhaka and Gaur were the biggest forts in pre-Mughal period. Mirza Nathan came to Bangladesh in 1608 A.D. as a commander of Islam Khan, who as the Subadar (governor) of Bengal appointed by Emperor Jahangir. In fact, the word ‘Dhakka’ means a ‘watch station’. Dhaka may have derived its name from its being a place for a watch station. Some people say that this city has got its name from the tree, Dhak (Butea frondosa), which used to grow in plenty at this place. 

Dhaka is located close to two ancient capitals of Bengal, Vikrampur and Sonargown. So, it was very natural that this place was pivotal to the defense of these two capitals; and as a result, grew up as a cantonment town as well as a business center. 

Islam Khan became the Subadar of Suba-e-Bangla (the province of Bengal) in 1608 A.D. At that time the capital of the Suba was Rajmahal. On being appointed as the Subadar, Islam Khan decided to transfer the capital from Rajmahal to Dhaka. He renamed Dhaka as Jahangirnagar after the name of Emperor Jahangir, his mentor, and sent two of his officers along with their subordinates to Dhaka two weeks ahead of him “to put the old fort into a good state of repair, and make it fit to receive the Governor”.  

On his way to Dhaka, his new capital, with his army, Islam Khan got engaged in fighting against Musa Khan, the son of Isa Khan and the then leader of the Bara Bhuiyn, at Ghoragat. The fighting delayed his arrival to Dhaka till the year of 1610 A.D. Musa Khan’s tomb and a mosque built by him now located on the courtyard of Shaidulla Hall. 

In Dhaka, Islam Khan used to stay in the old fort, which is now the Dhaka Central Jail. Since his time Dhaka started growing bigger in size as a capital. Manrique, who came to Dhaka in 1640 A.D., described it as a “great and famous city”. He mentioned of a Magh raid on Dhaka which had taken place twelve years before he came here. The Arakanese Magh king, Thudhamma, with the help of Portuguese, and on the invitation of Raja Kedar Roy, one of the Bara Bhuiyn, landed in Dhaka without any résistance from the Mughal contingent stationed here. The Magh spent three days sacking the city, setting fire to it at deferent parts. On hearing that a great force of Mughal cavalry was on the way to Dhaka, they left the city on forth day.  

The Portuguese took away one of the daughters of Kedar Roy, Angelica, who was later traced at St. Helena, a island in the south Atlantic, helping the British conquer the island from the Portuguese. At that time many Bengalis used to work as Khalashi (sailors) in Portuguese ships. Ali was the leader of a group of khalashi. He joined hands with Angelica to help the British.   

Tavernier visited Dhaka in 1666 A.D. and wrote, “Dhaka is a great town……….The length of this town is about two leagues.” Captain Bowrey, who came to Dhaka about twelve years after Tavernier had come, wrote, “The city of Dhaka is very large and specious one……” 

Mir Jumla was appointed the Governor of Bengal in 1660 A.D. He conducted a successful campaign against Assam. On his coming back from Assam he brought with him two huge cannons to Dhaka. The cannons were set on the bank of Buriganga River. One of them fell into the river and got lost for ever. The other, called Bibi Marium, transferred to Chalkbazar. Sometime in 1950s it was brought to the traffic island at Gulisthan, and became known as ‘Gulisthaner Caman’. Once very famous, this cannon has got lost in oblivion of the people due to its present inconspicuous location at Osmani Uddyan.  

Mir Jumla erected the Dhaka Gate, which now stands in good condition near the Doel Chattar. This was a gate on the north to enter the main part of the city at that time. Not much later Dhaka expanded further north beyond that gate, at one stage, up to Tongi. 

As a capital, Dhaka started flourishing fast in trade and commerce that attracted many foreign traders to it. The city became the main center for Muslin trade. Dutch, French, English, Armenian and Greek traders flocked to Dhaka to do business. They established their own trading houses. With the traders also came Christian missionaries.  

The Portuguese Jesuit Missionary built the first church in Dhaka at Tejgown in 1677 A.D. Though at that time Tejgown was the suburb of Dhaka City, but afterwards when the city lost its status of a capital and gradually shrank, a thick jungle grew in between the city and Tejgown. In early nineteenth century, William Robinson wrote, “Tejga is a village …. The way to it from Dhaka lies through a dense jungle, once the site of numerous pleasure gardens: the walls of which in many places still remain. This jungle is beautiful in appearance, but it is not passed without danger, it being the habitation of tigers.” 

Prince Azam, son of Emperor Aurongajeb, started the construction of the Lalbag Fort in 1678 A.D., but before he could complete it he had to leave Sube Bangla. In his second tenure (1678-1680 A.D.) as the Subadar, Shaista Khan continued the construction of the fort. But on the death of his daughter, Pari Bibi, he abandoned the construction; and the fort remained incomplete. Lalbag Fort is going to be recognized soon as a ‘World Heritage’ by UNESCO.  

Ibrahim Khan became Subadar of Bengal in 1689 A.D. He built the Jinjira Palace on the south bank of Buriganga River. A wooden bridge on the river connected the palace to the north bank. Bishop Heber came to Dhaka in 1824 A.D. to consecrate the Anglican Church on Johnson Road, to the north of Bahadur Shah Park. He described Jinjira Palace as bigger than the Kremlin Palace in Moscow. 

Prince Azimushshan, grandson of Emperor Aurongajeb, became the Subadar of Bengal in 1697 A.D. The Emperor Appointed Murshid Kuli Khan as the Dewan of the Suba in 1700 A.D. The Subadar used to live in Rajmahal, but the Dewan, in Dhaka. The relation between the Subadar and the Dewan was extremely bad. Azimushshan made a futile attempt by his men in Dhaka to kill Murshid Kuli Khan in 1704 A.D. For the safety of his life, Murshid Kuli Khan immediately shifted his office from Dhaka to Murshidabad. When in 1717 A.D. he was appointed the Subadar, Murshidabad became the capital of Bengal; though Dhaka remained as a seat for a deputy governor.  

Some famous Mughal buildings in Dhaka are: the tomb of Pari Bibi (1684), Bara Katra (1664), Choto Katra (1663), Husaini Dalan (1642), the Great Idgah (1640), Churihatta Mosque (1649), Satgombuz Mosque (1680), Khan Muhammad Mridha Mosque (1704) etc. Bara Katra and Choto Katra are now on the point of destruction. The mosque of the Great Idgah at Dhanmondi has been defaced in the name of extension.  

With the losing of the status as a capital at the hands of Murshid Kuli Khan, Dhaka started declining fast. During the time of Shaista Khan (1644-77 and 1680-88 A.D.), Dhaka City extended along the Burriganga River for about 10 (ten) miles. Rennell’s map of Dhaka, published in 1780, showed that the extension of the city shark to only about four miles.  

The lithographs and sketches of Dhaka City done by Sir Charles D’Oyly, who came to Dhaka in 1808 A.D. as the collector of the East India Company and left the city in 1824 A.D., show how the city lost its glamour and became almost ruined by that time. 

During Mughal Period two rivers, Dulai and Pandu, with their branches used to flow through the Dhaka City. Dulai River gradually turned into Dholai Khal (canal) and in 1960’s choked up with earth. Lohar pul (Iron Bridge) at Gandaria was on the Dulai River. There was a bridge on the Pandu River, known as Ambar Shah Bridge, which connected Shahbag with Kawran Bazzar. The deep and dry canal in Paribagh, which has very recently been filled up, and the canal in the back of Hotel Sonargown, which is now being excavated, are actually the parts of the course of Pandu River.  

Pandu River had at least two branches to the south to fall into the Dulai River. One branch flowed east of Suhrawardy Uddyan in south-eastern direction. The trace of the other branch was visible even a few years back between Nazimuddin Road and Dhaka Medical Collage. Chankhar Pol was on this branch. Dulai and Pandu rivers have got obliterated in the hands of imprudent and land grabber human beings. It is now the turn for Burriganga, Turag and Balu rivers to get obliterated by them under the eyes of unconcerned administration.  

At the partition of Bengal in 1905 A.D., Dhaka was made the capital of the newly formed province of East Bengal and Assam. But the bonanza was short lived. In 1912 A.D. the partition of Bengal was annulled by King Gorge the Fifth at Delhi Darbar, and Kolkata became the capital of united Bengal; at the same time the capital of the British-India Empire transferred from Kolkata to Delhi. Dhaka was compensated, for its being stripped of the status of a capital, with the establishment of Dhaka University in 1921 A.D. The residence building built for the teachers of the university on the Mintoo Road are now being used as the residence of ministers. 

As the Old Dhaka is the Mughal part of the Dhaka City, Ramna area is the British part of it. Some landmark buildings in Dhaka built during British period are: North brook Hall, Ahsan Manjil, Rup Lal House, Curzon Hall, Old High Court building etc. Curzon Hall, now a part of the Dhaka University, was originally meant for a town hall.

The British left Indian subcontinent in 1947 A.D., and Dhaka became the capital of East Bengal — the eastern wing of Pakistan.  Later in 1956 A.D. the political name of East Bengal was changed into East Pakistan. With the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent country in 1971 A.D. through the nine-month long liberation war, Dhaka has become the capital of the country.

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