Bangladesh might just be
the most resilient country on the planet.
Once the poorest part of British India,
it became the most deprived part of Pakistan
before experiencing the deadliest cyclone in human history.
That was followed by a liberation war, famine,
numerous political coups and assassinations,
and devastating natural disasters.
The important thing is that we have developed
our internal capability to cope
with many of these disasters.
Bangladesh had to do it for its own survival.
Famously referred to as a "basket case"
in 1971 by US government officials
including Henry Kissinger, in per capita terms,
it's now among the richest countries in South Asia,
surpassing India in 2020.
It's not so secret to economic success
is what experts call RMG, Ready Made Garments.
Every country in the world started
the industrial revolution with RMG, be it London,
New York, Japan, Korea, China, and now Bangladesh.
The need to fill factory floors
has made a positive impact
on one group in particular, women.
And that's set Bangladesh apart
from other Muslim-majority countries, as well as India.
This is also a component of the capitalist society
that kind of promotes individualism.
And that could be one reason
that a large number of women came into work.
They did not want to be chained
as a domestic helping hand to any households.
But Bangladesh might be a victim
of its own success.
In 2026, the UN will upgrade it
from least developed country status,
but this will mean the loss of economic benefits.
Along with lasting bias towards women,
Islamic fundamentalist groups,
and no real plans to move beyond low-end manufacturing,
the rapid progress of Bangladesh could be at risk.
On August 15, 1947,
the great symbol of the British empire came down
for the last time to be replaced
by the banner of the new Indian government.
The partition of India created two dominions
to separate Muslim and non-Muslim populations,
India and West and East Pakistan,
which included modern day Bangladesh.
14 million people were displaced
because they left their homes.
Anywhere between 1 and 2 million people,
Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs, they died.
Muslims who had been murdered on the way.
Hindus and Sikhs who had been murdered by Muslims.
People of our generation,
the older generation has almost died out.
So that's the very tragic story of partition.
For over two decades,
the majority Bengali population in East Pakistan was ruled
by a central government based in West Pakistan,
which spent the majority of capital on its own development.
So the Bengali grievance was that Bengal
was being deprived of its legitimate share
in economic resources.
In the mid 1960s that came to a head
through a demand for regional autonomy,
which we called the six point program.
We in Bangladesh called it our Magna Carta,
because from the six point onward,
we went to one point, which was independence.
But before obtaining independence,
in 1970 the deadliest cyclone in human history took place
in which up to 500,000 people died.
There was no response from the Pakistan government,
no measures toward rehabilitation,
toward coming to the aid of those who had survived,
coming to locate the bodies
or calculate the damage that had been done.
This accelerated the call for independence
and during the first democratic election in Pakistan,
the Awami League Party led
by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won a decisive majority.
Legally I am the authority
because people have voted to me.
Now they are using their force,
it's up to them now to decide what to do.
Not wanting Pakistan to be ruled from the East,
the central government
in West Pakistan took military action.
On the 25th of March,
the Pakistan army launched what has come to be known
as Operation Searchlight.
It's estimated that on the very first night
between 5,000 and 7,000 people were killed
on the streets of Dhaka
and in the course of more than nine months,
the estimates put out by the government of Bangladesh
is that 3 million people were killed.
The killings, which Bangladesh calls genocide,
were followed by a liberation war
between East and West Pakistan.
10 million refugees fled to India
while the massacres continued
and hundreds of thousands died.
It was India that came to the rescue.
An India-Bangladesh joint command was formed
and very briskly, very swiftly, they conquered,
they captured ever larger slices of territory
in East Pakistan.
And that was when The People's Republic of Bangladesh
was born.
Although Bangladesh was newly independent,
after years of turmoil, it was the second poorest nation
in the world.
And things were about to get worse.
Industries are at a halt,
paraffin needed for cooking and heating is very scarce.
And huge queues form for any supplies
that becomes available.
In its first four years,
the newly independent nation was plagued by mismanagement
and food shortages led to a disastrous famine
in which an estimated 1.5 million people died.
But then the tragedy, again, another tragedy,
Sheikh Mujibur was assassinated
by a group of junior military officers.
He and most of his family were killed.
Despite political instability,
coups and assassinations,
the '80s saw rapid economic improvements.
There has been a sequence of reforms
that has initiated the private sector-led
growth in Bangladesh.
We have to keep in mind that Bangladesh has started
as a socialist country.
It nationalized everything from banks
to all kinds of factories, manufacturing and so on.
The outcome was not very good.
And the government realized it
and slowly started going back to the market mechanism,
allowed the private sector to come in,
which is the most important thing.
At the same time, positive changes initiated
by NGOs were embraced by the government.
Like BRAC, a nonprofit created
to help those in need after the Liberation War.
And Grameen Bank, the so-called bank for the poor.
It gives millions in small loans
to the impoverished without requiring collateral.
97% of its borrowers are women.
Bangladesh being one
of the poorest countries in the world,
it was also a ground for experimentation
for social development.
This NGO sector, supported by the government
and also the international community.
I must say that that donor community played a big role
in supporting the drive that was led with the government.
And the result is that in a lot of social innovation,
social engineering, Bangladesh has pioneered
and established credible records for development
which is being experimented or applied in parts of Africa,
Latin America, and other countries.
This is something that we feel proud of.
Although foreign aid played a big role
in the development of Bangladesh,
accounting for up to 8% of their Gross National Income
in the 70s, it's now less than 2%.
Life expectancy has jumped from 47 to 73 years.
Bangladesh's female literacy rate is higher than India's,
while its infant mortality rate is lower.
Compared with the birth rate of a Muslim majority country,
even compared with India, we are better off.
Our birth rate has come down.
Family planning has been adapted
at every family level in Bangladesh, more or less,
and there is no taboo about it.
There is no religious barrier against it.
Why?
Because of the NGO movement, because of awareness,
because of government's role in that also donor support.
USA has played a very significant role in popularizing
what I call family planning in Bangladesh.
So we have to admit that the international community's role,
domestic effort, and the government all work together
to bring about the changes.
And that's why Bangladesh's population now is almost
at the replacement level.
Another significant shift
for Bangladesh was the birth of a new local industry.
Inspired by the success of countries like Vietnam and China
in exporting clothes abroad,
Bangladesh began to build its own factories,
creating a new entrepreneurial class.
It's the low-cost starting point
because Bangladeshis didn't have capital.
We are not a capital rich country.
It didn't have the rich upper class and so on, so forth.
So most of them came
from very ordinary middle class background
and became entrepreneurs, became self-made entrepreneurs.
It started like a very small enterprise operation
and now they are big time players and supplying globally.
I started the garment factory,
very small garment factory in city centers.
Now, of course Viyellatex Group is one
of the very renowned groups.
We have almost 15,000 workforce.
I'm sure it is very surprising
that we are designing product
for the top brands in the world.
Everything we do,
that means not only the garment manufacturing,
the entire process,
we call ourself end-to-end solution providers.
We have six, seven garment manufacturing plants.
We produce roughly 3 million knit garments every month
and more than 1.5 million woven shirts every month.
Today the garment industry accounts
for up to 80% of the country's total exports.
Part of the its success is due to government initiatives
like the Export Development Fund.
Created in 1989, it allows exporters to borrow
at lower interest rates.
And Bangladesh's status as a LDC or least developed country,
gives it tax-free access to European markets
to boost trade and economic growth.
Also, as China moves away from low-end manufacturing
and towards higher-end products like cars,
Bangladesh has been able to benefit.
But perhaps the biggest beneficiaries
of the garment industry are women,
who had previously been unable to make dependable salaries.
When this garment business started,
somehow we're able to attract these women
or female workforce to our industry,
and that can help significantly
to improve our, I mean, society.
Just imagine, I mean more than 5 million workforce,
3 million are women.
Average salaries for workers
in the Ready Made Garments industry
are double the country's minimum wage,
which means that women can become financially independent.
In the rural areas,
there were not that much employment available.
So the women, they took off from the rural areas
that know they need to search for better employment.
Another sociological thing is that the emancipation
that they could live by themselves.
Even though their salary was quite meager,
they also have their mind of their own.
If they were working within someone's house,
they did not have any vacation,
no festival bonus given, no policies.
At least in the garment sector,
gradually the policies came into place
so they could get a bonus, overtime and health security
and other issues.
High rate of participation in Bangladesh
could be correlated with the free education for girls.
At the secondary level, free stipend is given.
We have a very strong NGO-based communities
and the civil society who actually looked into this
and encouraged women's participation.
Since first serving as Prime Minister in 1996,
Sheikh Hasina, daughter of the first elected president
of Bangladesh, has also introduced laws
to balance out the treatment of men and women.
When Hasina Sheikh came into power,
she herself, took a lot of positive steps
for women's empowerment, particularly involving women
in income generating activities,
encouraging women to remain in the RMG sectors
and provided lot of facilities like daycares.
She actually was the first prime minister
that introduced the national policies
for the advancement of women in 1997.
And there actually, she directly mentioned in the policy
that women should be given equal inheritance
to property rights.
But even though great progress has been made,
women in Bangladesh are still not treated as equals.
Women are still seen as the second class citizen,
the way the patriarchal society and the men
and the society family, and the state perceives
is that women need to be controlled.
There are very few women
in the highest level of decision making,
even in the administrative sector.
Even in the police, navy, military,
women are actually at the bottom of the hierarchy.
There are also religious parties in the country
that demand the imposition of Islamic laws
which would threaten the rights of women,
and the economy that depends on them to work.
So even though the religious preachers,
they say things about certain rules and norms
and customs women have to follow when they go now for work.
They have never said that like broadly in a wider form,
that women cannot work and Bangladesh,
it's of course, the secularism, this pillar of,
one of the strongest pillar of our constitution.
While a thriving industry
has helped grow Bangladesh's economy and empower women,
a big problem remains: abysmal working conditions.
Of course, along the way, there've been tragedies
for example, a few years ago,
there was called this Rana Plaza tragedy.
There have been fires taking place,
occurring in other garment industries.
So those have been accidents, tragic accidents,
which we as a nation regret
and which we feel will not be happening anymore.
After the Rana Plaza tragedy
where over 1000 people died,
nearly 200 international brands signed an agreement
that allowed for legally binding safety commitments,
independent inspections at the factories,
and contributions for safety training
and factory improvements.
A renewal agreement was signed in 2021.
The garment industry has been a boost
for Bangladesh's economy.
I think we got the idea of improving,
of going on to other areas,
and of course, exporting our goods abroad.
So we have our sense of optimism there.
But then again, we're very cautious about the future.
Exporting abroad could now be easier
with the recent completion of the Padma Bridge,
now the longest in Bangladesh
that links the less developed Southwest
with the rest of the country.
It offers a faster route to the second largest port
for exporters shipping to Europe.
If you put a ladder and climb it up,
as development goes up,
we are still in the first step of the ladder.
We have not yet broadened the export base
to move up the ladder.
We needed to move to light engineering.
We needed to move to electronics.
Government should play the enabling role
and make the playing field even for all sectors,
not only for the garments.
If they can do that, I think we can see the winners
which will come out of the market forces.
As Bangladesh graduates
from Least Developed Country status,
the loss of economic benefits will put pressure
on its economy.
Unless the government can sign tariff-free trade agreements,
tackle corruption and diversify its economy,
the goal of reaching upper-middle income status
by 2031 may not be met.