Victory in today’s context may not always connote a victory of might or military dominance, but it is rather about strategic gains. Given the two recent international court verdicts on Bangladesh’s claims over the Bay of Bengal, it is imperative that we now explore the potential economic frontier – the blue economy in this case. It is a concept which was developed as an enhanced prototype to the green economy and it delves into economic possibilities related in the context of water, energy, regional cooperation and global trading – by introducing innovations that generate multiple benefits.
We have tried to detail the concept in our cover story — the Blue Economy beckons — for this issue, in view of its importance for business, entrepreneurship and national prosperity. Former Ambassador Humayun Kabir said that the puzzle surrounding the Blue Economy must be solved and that the issue must be understandable to all stakeholders including policymakers, investors and international players to give a proper signal about Bangladesh’s seriousness in harnessing benefits from it.
In this month’s interview, Member, General Economics Division, at the Planning Commission Professor Shamsul Islam stressed on the expansion of the middle class, as it will enhance the demand for good governance that will include more participation of the civil society in the state affairs. He is optimistic of being a middle income country by 2021. ‘Our development goal is peace and people-centric,’ he said.
Additional articles include Dr. Hossain Zillur Rahman’s take on agriculture as the renewed economic frontier. Here he talks about re-positioning of agriculture as a growth driver, critical to matching the growth acceleration target for achieving the high-end of the middle income status. Furthermore, in our sector focus for this month, we have focused on the current state of advertising industry – where, due to a lack of proper policies, the sector remains ‘informally formal.’ A photo story on the bottlenecked transportation system in Dhaka city is covered, alongside more articles.
We are pleased to inform the readers that Bengal Foundation will be holding the Bengal Classical Music Festival Bangladesh 2014, which will begin on November 27 and continue till December 1. This will be the third edition of the festival.
The need for Bangladesh to explore other business horizons is always there, lest we overuse our glorified sectors till they cease to exist. With more and more startups becoming successful, we hope to witness a steady growth in business and the economy and thus attain our development goals and prosper as a middle income country in the near future.
