I disagree with some of the comments around the "oligarches" of Bangladesh. The reason we had a rise in inequality in Bangladesh in the 2010s was because we got more private sector participation in big infrastructure projects. Around 52% of power plants are now owned by the private sector. In the recent power projects the government stopped building power plants entirely and mostly focusing on building transmission and distribution infrastructure. Out of the 100 SEZs promised by the Hasina government, around 28 of them are assigned to the private sector. The list goes on.
Has this public private partnership caused more inequality? Yes. Has it been good for the country? Absolutely. The alternative would have more false promises by the the worthless civil service (who continue to get pay rises over the years with no improvement in service quality). But many in the country would decry the current situation. I would advise against that. We need to continue down the deregulation and privatisation train to build up the country. People in the country need to give this mad delusion that we're going to have a compotent and low corruption civil service. I'm sorry. It's not going to happen.
Fortunately the post covid economic crisis in Bangladesh has motivated a few important deregulations. Now Bangladeshi businesses are legally allowed to build their own submarine cables and oil refinaries. It's kind of insane that the government banned us from this in the first place.
In short, development is more important than inequality. We should focus on the former and not so much on the latter. There are ways to improve inequality through privatisation as well. We can do a one time asset transfer to every citizen from the money the government gets from privatisation public assets. I'm in favour of such a scheme. But we need to prioritise privatisation in the coming years.
I disagree with some of the comments around the "oligarches" of Bangladesh. The reason we had a rise in inequality in Bangladesh in the 2010s was because we got more private sector participation in big infrastructure projects. Around 52% of power plants are now owned by the private sector. In the recent power projects the government stopped building power plants entirely and mostly focusing on building transmission and distribution infrastructure. Out of the 100 SEZs promised by the Hasina government, around 28 of them are assigned to the private sector. The list goes on.
Has this public private partnership caused more inequality? Yes. Has it been good for the country? Absolutely. The alternative would have more false promises by the the worthless civil service (who continue to get pay rises over the years with no improvement in service quality). But many in the country would decry the current situation. I would advise against that. We need to continue down the deregulation and privatisation train to build up the country. People in the country need to give this mad delusion that we're going to have a compotent and low corruption civil service. I'm sorry. It's not going to happen.
Fortunately the post covid economic crisis in Bangladesh has motivated a few important deregulations. Now Bangladeshi businesses are legally allowed to build their own submarine cables and oil refinaries. It's kind of insane that the government banned us from this in the first place.
In short, development is more important than inequality. We should focus on the former and not so much on the latter. There are ways to improve inequality through privatisation as well. We can do a one time asset transfer to every citizen from the money the government gets from privatisation public assets. I'm in favour of such a scheme. But we need to prioritise privatisation in the coming years.