The caretaker government has implemented many landmark governance reforms, but unfortunately one major reform that has remained untouched is of the sluggish and complex bureaucratic structure of the government, said Hua Du, country director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Hua Du said this at the monthly luncheon meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) at a city hotel yesterday.
She said the vision of transforming Bangladesh into a mid-income country by 2020 may remain an illusion due to the sluggish and complex bureaucratic structure of the government.
"In my view, this is the mother of all other reforms," Hua Du said in her speech on the topic "Bangladesh Economy: Opportunities and Challenges".
She said the pyramid bureaucratic structure and its archaic systems and procedures inherited from the colonial days characterised by inefficiency, centralisation, lack of delegation and job description; too many tiers in the decision making process; archaic filing and noting system and lack of e-governance; poor pay structure, do not have a place in modern states.
That is why it is incapable of implementing government's own development projects, let alone promoting business and investment, Hua Du said.
"We need to highlight this to the government for transforming this bureaucracy," she added.
Hua Du also said Bangladesh can easily double or even triple the foreign exchange remittance from expatriate workers, which was more than $7 billion this year, by investing and focusing a little more on technical and science education, human resource development and language training.
She said addressing the hardship of the poor affected by higher food prices remains a challenge. "Failure to contain higher food prices could seriously undermine macroeconomic and political stability," she said.
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Quelle/Source: The Daily Star, 18.06.2008
