৩৮ তম বিসিএস প্রিলিমিনারি ও লিখিত পরীক্ষা প্রস্তুতি আন্তর্জাতিকে, পার্ট – ১৫

৩৭তম বিসিএস #লিখিত_প্রস্তুতি

————আন্তর্জাতিক ও বাংলাদেশ বিষয়াবলীয়তে AIIB and Bangladesh গুরুত্বপূর্ণ ।নিচের লেখাটি পড়ুন।
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AIIB and Bangladesh’s infrastructure

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Bangladesh is set to have a new window of external financing of vital infrastructures as parliament on Tuesday passed the ‘Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Bill, 2016’. The passage has paved the way for the country to join the AIIB as a founding member. The decision to join the AIIB is very crucial for Bangladesh as, according to a World Bank estimate, the country will have to spend $7.4 billion to $10 billion a year until 2020 to bring its power grids, roads and water supplies up to the standard needed to serve its growing population. In total, the country will require between $74 billion and $100 billion between 2011 and 2020 or 7.38 percent to 10.02 percent of its gross domestic product to improve infrastructure.
Earlier, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith introduced the bill in the House, saying the scope for joining the AIIB having an approved capital of $100 billion by member-countries of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank is opened. Bangladesh had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on October 24, 2014 and Articles of Agreement (AoA) on December 25 in that year for joining this bank. Bangladesh has 6,605 approved shares of the bank and each of the shares is valued at $100,000. China took initiatives for establishing the AIIB with 57 founder members. The AIIB will hopefully act as yet another alternative to the WB and the ADB as a source of liberal external finance for different infrastructural projects in the country. But officials have made it clear that joining the AIIB does not mean that Bangladesh is leaving the World Bank or the ADB or any other international donor agencies. Even the WB and the ADB have welcomed the new bank initiated by China. Any alternative source of financing of mega-projects like the Padma bridge will give Bangladesh a leverage in the long run to meet its development targets. Unless Bangladesh is able to build roads, ports, rail, electricity generating capacity and telecommunications it cannot expect to come out of the 6.0 per cent GDP growth trap. The AIIB is expected to differ from the present ADB by focusing on building infrastructure rather than in prioritising poverty reduction. According to initial statements, the AIIB is also unlikely to ‘attach political conditions to its loans’ which include the environment and human rights practices. It is to have a clear ‘Asian-led identity’ and will have ‘enormous development potential in the future.’ Infrastructure in Bangladesh is one of the most underdeveloped in the world, a factor which has stopped economic growth from accelerating further, Abul Kasem Khan, a former president of DCCI, said while presenting a paper on infrastructure. The country’s ranking in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report slightly improved, but it is still lower compared to South Asian neighbours: India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Vietnam invested over 8.0 per cent of their GDP for infrastructure development and have been able to build modern and essential infrastructure facilities, he pointed out. Khan said Bangladesh can achieve the high growth rate of 8.0 to 10 per cent on an average in the coming years, but the preconditions of such growth targets need be to addressed, which are mainly related to infrastructure development. The implementation of Dhaka-Chittagong four-lane highway, Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, Dhaka-Tangail highway and Dhaka-Chittagong dual gauge rail track, activating New Mooring Container Terminal, Mongla port and Pangaon port and improving the capacity of Chittagong port and its automation are the key issues to boost investment in Bangladesh. Feeder roads also need to be improved immediately to reduce the cost of doing business. Jin Liqun, the then president-designate of the AIIB, was in Dhaka to attend the Bangladesh Development Forum 2015 and said the bank’s experts looked at the potential projects that might be financed by the AIIB in the country as soon as possible. He said the bank is exploring opportunities to fund projects in Bangladesh, encouraged by the country’s keenness to be among the first borrowers of the newly established institution. With the economy’s gradual growth, Bangladesh will not require such support and it is not far off, according to Liqun. By 2030, the country may even donate money to other poor countries, he said confidently praising Bangladesh’s robust economic growth in the last seven or eight years. He is certain Bangladesh would be a middle-income country by 2021 and a developed country by 2041. However, the AIIB will not provide any concessional lending. In terms of non-concessional lending, the lending charges will be — more or less — in line with the charges levied by the WB’s the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) or the ADB’s Ordinary Capital Resource (OCR). The IBRD carries interest rates of LIBOR plus 1.35 per cent and the OCR about 4.5 per cent. “”Even though we do not give Bangladesh the so-called concessional funding the terms and conditions are far more favourable than it can possibly get from the market,”” Jin Liqun said, adding that the maturity period will be up to 30 years and the cost is much lower.
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Rahman Jahangir
arjayster@gmail.com
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