Strike paralyses urban economy of Bangladesh

The article, written by the former editor of Far Eastern Economic Review Philip Bowring, titled "The Puzzle of Bangladesh" commended the present GDP growth rate of Bangladesh is well above the average for developing countries.

Bangladesh has overtaken India on several social indicators while its aid dependence has fallen from 6 percent to 1.8 percent of the GDP, he added.

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The globally famed columnist Bowring said Bangladesh's attractions for foreign investors -- low labor costs and stable fiscal and macro-economic policies -- are countered by politically motivated strikes that paralyze the urban economy.

Vested trade union interests that choke its main port, inefficient textile business interests that impede its dynamic garment industry, and corrupt politicians and officials who hold up infrastructure development.

As it is, he said, over the past year the nation has weathered two crises. Last summer, the worst floods in decades put more than half the country under water. But no one died, he said, relief was effective, farmers adjusted and the economy still grew at nearly 5 percent.

Bowring said, and the this year, according to many a foreign forecast, Bangladesh's garment industry, which employs hundreds of thousands, was supposed to have been devastated by the end of textile quotas and China's export juggernaut.

It is too early to make a final judgment, he said, but so far at least the local industry appears to have maintained its share of the global market, albeit with lower profits.

Of course this is still a desperately poor, overpopulated country, where 50 percent of children are underweight.

But India is no better on the score; Bangladesh has made much more progress than its neighbours over the past 10 years, becoming self-sufficient in food.

There are doubts about how much longer the farmers can continue to get additional output from their tiny plots of land.