BSS, Dhaka :
Bangladesh is destined to be South Asia’s standout success as the country has fared better than India and Pakistan in key economic indicators, the US-based prestigious Bloomberg magazine said recently in an article.
“India-eternally confident about being the only South Asian economy that matters – now must grapple with the fact that it, too, is poorer than Bangladesh in per capita terms. India’s per capita income in 2020-21 was a mere $1,947,” Mihir Swarup Sharma, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, wrote in the article.
In reality, the article of the weekly business magazine reads, Bangladesh is far richer than the depressed Indian states.
It said , Bangladesh’s 160 million-plus people, packed into a fertile delta that’s more densely populated than the Vatican City, seem destined to be South Asia’s standout success.
Sharma, also a senior fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and head of its Economy and Growth Programme, mentioned that the past 50 years have shown how unwise it is to bet against Bangladesh.
“In 1971, success seemed well beyond a long shot,” reads the article titled “South Asia Should Pay Attention to Its Standout Star.”
Once again, Bangladesh should benchmark itself against Vietnam, which is not only part of the China-centric Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but also signed an FTA with the European Union in 2019, reads the article.
“Transforming the terms of Bangladesh’s trade won’t be easy, which is why the effort needs to start now. Dhaka will have to beef up its negotiating capacity in particular,” Sharma wrote.
The article said half a century ago, in March 1971, Bangladesh’s founders declared their independence from richer and more powerful Pakistan.
The country was born amid famine and war; millions fled to India or were brutally killed by the Pakistani soldiers.
To the Pakistani military’s American backers, the new country seemed destined to fail: Henry Kissinger, then Secretary of State, famously called it a “basketcase.” George Harrison and Ravi Shankar organized the first-ever super-benefit to raise money for UNICEF relief work in the struggling country.
This month, the article mentioned Bangladesh’s Cabinet Secretary told reporters that GDP per capita had grown by 9% over the past year, rising to $2,227.
