Regional Policy: The National Interest and Regional Objective (Perspective Plan of Bangladesh)

Lecture-07:

Regional Policy: The National Interest and Regional Objective (Perspective Plan of Bangladesh)

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March 02, 2015

URP 4223: Urban and Regional Economics

Course Teacher:

Md. Esraz-Ul-Zannat Assistant Professor Dept. of URP, KUET

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CKNOWLEDGEMENT

These slides are aggregations for better understanding of the topic mentioned in the previous slide . I acknowledge the contribution of all the authors and photographers from where I tried to accumulate the info and used for better presentation.

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R ^EGIONAL P ^OLICY :

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^BJECTIVES

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 National Interests - Basic Issues and Economic Interests

 Regional Policy

 Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021: making vision 2021 A reality

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 Think of your own life – what are the things in your life (what do you do) that are in your BEST interest (that are good for you?)

 We are motivated to action by what is best for us

 Just like there are things that are best for people’s individual lives, there are things that are best for nations.

These are called National Interests

 The national interest is primarily country's goals and aspirations whether economic (Economic/Money), military (Security/Safety), or cultural (Values/Beliefs)

 National interests commonly include:

 Self preservation (primary duty of any government)

 Independence (Sovereignty)

 Economic well-being

 Military security

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^ATIONAL

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^NTERESTS

 A country’s national interests change over time

 Each country has its own national interests, but all countries have common SECURITY, ECONOMIC, and IDEOLOGICAL interests

 Citizens can disagree on what are a country’s national interests

 A country’s leaders are ultimately responsible for defining the national interests

 A country’s national interest determine its Foreign Policy

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^ASIC

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^SSUES

 Promote the economic welfare of a country’s people

 Broad economic interests shared by all nations:

 Provide citizens with an adequate standard of living

 Ensure economic development and growth

 Establish trade relations with other nations

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^CONOMIC

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^NTERESTS

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^EGIONAL

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^OLICY

 ~ policy with the aim of improving the economic well- being of a particular regions and also to avoid regional disparities.

 Regional policy is an investment policy. It supports job creation, competitiveness, economic growth, improved quality of life and sustainable development.

 Regional problems have differentiated nature

 More nuanced view of the regional problem in many countries: both global/national perspective and “close-up view”; tailoring of regional policy to specific regional needs.

 Since 1971 there has been political instability which hinders the development of the Bangladeshi national economy.

 Inflation remains low and is under control

 In 1998 floods devastated Bangladesh and they made a strong economic recover and the annual growth rate went from 5% to 6% which may continue.

 Bangladesh is still a developing country because

 More imports than exports

 Substantially below average GDP / capita

 More individuals working in the primary sector

 High birth rate and high population growth

 Extremely high population density

 Majority of people in the active class with just a few in the sedentary class

 Poor infrastructure

 Little natural resources

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ERSPECTIVES

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 Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021: making vision 2021 A reality

 National interests and regional policies are majorly within the this plan up to 2021. A lot of national and regional policies and proposals also supports simultaneously. Some of are as follows:

 National Agriculture 2009

 National Water Policy

 National Transport policy

 New Agricultural Extension Policy

 National Food Policy

 Land Policy & National Land use policy

 Coastal policy

 Hill tract region Development policy

 Many more……..

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^ONG

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^ERM

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ERSPECTIVES

 The overarching vision of the Perspective Plan is successful national development. That encompasses all aspects of economic, social, cultural, political, and other areas of development so that a high quality of life of all citizens can be ensured. The vision embodies a shared view of all citizens and a dream supported by will and action to transform it into reality.

 Sixth (2011 to 2015 and seventh Five year Plan (2016 to 2021) will be followed by the perspective plan.

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ISION OF THE

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 Economic growth and corruption free good governance (Institutional foundations of stability and prosperity)

Vision 2021 places strong emphasis on establishing a legacy of good governance by focusing on three fundamental principles of governance:

 ensuring the rule of law,

 avoiding political partisanship, and

 building a society free from corruption.

 Towards middle income economy (towards a prudent macroeconomic policy framework for growth and stability) and Promoting human development

 GDP growth rate to rise to 8.0 per cent by 2015, and further to 10.0 per cent by 2021, significantly improving living standards of the population by drastically reducing unemployment and

poverty, riding on substantially higher output and export growth,

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 Strategy for food security: agriculture and rural development

 Self-sufficiency in food: 2012

 Ensuring food security: 2017(a+a+n)

 Middle Income Country: 2022

*(a+a+n=Availability, accessibility and nutrition)

 Water Resources Management

 Energy security for development and welfare

 Towards a digital Bangladesh by 2021

 Transport and communication for the future

 Addressing the urban challenge

 Addressing challenge of poverty eradication

 Environmentally sustainable development

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 Promoting industrialization and trade policy regime

 Plan target of reaching 10 percent annual GDP growth by 2021 is premised on a prolific and competitive manufacturing sector growing at or near double digits during the 2010-21 decade

 Broad industrial sector will continue to account for a much larger share of GDP, approaching 37% by 2021, compensating for the secular decline in the share of agricultural sector, which falls to In order to get the maximum leverage out of manufacturing sector15%.

and its competitiveness in the global marketplace, the government will focus on four strategic approaches:

 (a) export diversification, involving product and market diversification;

 (b) seizing opportunities in export markets created by eroding competitiveness of Chinain low cost labor intensive products;

 (c) restructuring export production by seizing opportunities from globalized production chains and forging intra-industry linkages in a globalized economy; and

 (d) working on market access issues in multilateral, bilateral and

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 Policy Regime: Trade policy regime is the backbone of a high-performing manufacturing sector.

 Over the next decade, trade openness will deepen further so that only those manufacturing enterprises that remain globally competitive are expected to survive and prosper.

 To that end, Bangladesh will need, among other things, to reduce average tariffs to levels already reached by countries such as Vietnam, Malaysia, India and China. This has to happen ideally by the close of the Sixth Plan in 2015, well before 2021.

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 Globalization and regional cooperation challenges (Opportunities from globalization and regional cooperation)

 Regional cooperation: In recent years, proposals for sub-regional cooperation between Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan have been gaining ground. Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar are endowed with rich complementary resources that offer significant opportunities for cooperation in several sectors. Long- term strategies for strengthening regional cooperation include

 (a) more vigorous efforts in multiple forums to make SAFTA, APTA and BIMSTEC more effective organizations,

 (b) forging effective cooperation in trade, cross-border investment and all the other areas of mutually beneficial activities,

 (c) initiatives to resolve cross-border issues and undertake joint projects, such as production and distribution of electricity, gas, coal, fertilizer and other products, all on a win-win basis, and

 (d) participation in the grand Asian Highway and Asian Railway

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 Opportunities from Globalization:

 Globalization presents opportunities as well as challenges for Bangladesh. What is clear is that missed opportunities in an age of globalization could be costly.

 Besides strengthening our balance of payments position, remittance inflows have had significant impact on poverty reduction. Remittance inflows in 2011, at $11.5 billion, were about 10 per cent of GDP

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 National Interests - Basic Issues and Economic Interests

 Regional Policy

 Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021: making vision 2021 A reality

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^EARNT

 Understanding of the National interests, regional policy, and regional objective from Bangladesh Perspective Plan 2010-2021

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What Next?

Lecture 8:

Nature of Urban Problems: Land Use, Housing, Urban Transportation, Urban Environment and Urban Poverty.