UNB, Chittagong :
US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan W Mozena on Wednesday said Bangladesh’s dream to become a middle-income country and the Asian Tiger depends on some critical decisions, including an education revolution, physical infrastructure development and addressing the governance challenges.”Bangladesh’s becoming an Asian Tiger and becoming a middle-income country are all contingent on the nation’s making some critical decisions…decisions to undertake an education revolution, to expand and upgrade the nation’s physical infrastructure, decisions to address and resolve the governance challenges,” he said.
The US diplomat was addressing a function, titled ‘The New Bangladesh’, jointly arranged by the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) and American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) at city’s Hotel Agrabad. CCCI President Mahbubul Alam, AmCham President Aftab ul Islam and AmCham Executive Director A Gafur also spoke on the occasion.
Speaking at the function, Mozena said Bangladesh should be a middle-income country where all have the means to provide their families safe housing, ample, nutritious food, good healthcare and quality education. “I know God loves Bangladesh best … Bangladesh is so blessed … all of the challenges that it confronts can be resolved, can be overcome, provided, of course, there is sufficient will and commitment to do so,” he said. Sharing his views why Bangladesh is not already an Asian tiger today, the US diplomat said Bangladesh needs an education revolution like the successful agricultural revolution now underway.
Secondly, he said, Bangladesh needs to invest in its physical infrastructure and mentioned that Dhaka and Chittagong double-line highway, most vital and most critical piece of the infrastructure, remains unfinished.
“I urge the government to give highest attention to finishing the road as this would do wonders to increase Bangladesh’s competitiveness in the global marketplace,” Mozena said. Similarly, Bangladesh as an Asian Tiger will need port facilities with a capacity multiple times greater than the existing port facilities to deliver the flood of Bangladeshi products to the global marketplace, he added.
Mozena said all the infrastructural challenges — education, skills training, roads, railroads, ports, energy and power — are resolvable, and all offer great opportunities for investors.”Of course, there’re other challenges; these relate to governance. Corruption, bureaucratic red tape, inadequate rule of law, and the threat of political instability are well-known to us all … and all these challenges are resolvable as well,” he added.
