As astonishing as our economic progress has been -- with the country witnessing steady growth in our per capita income year after year -- it is still largely driven by domestic consumption, remittance, and trade.
While the RMG industry and foreign remittance have indeed done great things for our economy, in the long term, we need to figure out new ways to diversify our economy.
One of the most oft-cited solutions is to further develop our financial sector.
According to Manmohan Parkash, country manager of Asian Development Bank, a strong financial sector can work as a fourth pillar for Bangladesh’s economy and prepare it for any unforeseen shocks further down the line.
We wholeheartedly agree with this assessment.
Our economy has nowhere to go but forward, but that trajectory will be seriously hampered if we don’t take the necessary steps to fortify it from potential future shocks, especially with regard to our export basket, which is in dire need of diversification itself.
In further developing our financial sector, our economy would have one more pillar to nullify any of those negative shocks.
Of course, the case for developing our financial sector runs much deeper -- our banks have, for the longest time, been prone to mismanagement and inefficiency.
As the constant tug of war between the finance ministry and the central bank in managing our banking sector threatens to destabilize our very economy, the case for developing our finance sector at the policy level becomes all the more imperative.
To say nothing of the abhorrent conditions of our state owned banks.
Developing our finance sector would not only help stabilize our economy, but it would also potentially help it progress even further.
