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Others Foreign direct investment to the country has almost tripled since Awami League returned to power in 2008

Sheikh Hasina’s unprecedented electoral success that brought her to power for a record fourth time will not only continue to ensure stability along India’s eastern border but also open up a plethora of opportunities for sub-regional partnership, with Bangladesh acting as a bridge between India and Southeast Asia. This, in turn, would open up new economic opportunities for Dhaka and nations in the Bay of Bengal region.The last decade has witnessed unprecedented economic growth in Bangladesh, often described as a basket case due to years of military or military-backed regimes that also enjoyed the blessings of radical forces led by Jamaat-e-Islami. Even critics of the Hasina regime would agree that a steady growth rate of 7% in the past decade has pushed Bangladesh closer to acquiring the status of a middleincome country.Dhaka would parallel cities in eastern India in terms of cash flow, with a fastemerging middle class whose spending capacity is increasing. The Awami League has vowed to work for realising the aspirations of converting Bangladesh into a developed country by 2041.Inflows Bangladesh may become the 26th largest economy from the current 42nd by 2030, moving ahead of the Philippines, Pakistan, Vietnam and Malaysia. says an HSBC report. The country has been enlisted into the Next Eleven countries by Goldman Sachs — South Korea, Mexico, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey and Vietnam — which are ready to become the biggest economies in the 21st century, after four of the five BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).It is Hasina’s contribution that has made a least developed country such as Bangladesh a developing country now, going by economic indicators. Her first term as prime minister (1996-2001) was a warm-up phase, coming after years of decay and deadlock caused by the assassination of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. It, however, faltered as the BNP-Jamaat alliance took over and unleashed a reign of violence, corruption, religious extremism and militancy that lasted for a full term of five years from 2001.In 2008, Hasina came up with her party’s manifesto, Charter for Change-Vision 2021, and got a landslide victory in the parliamentary election held on December 29, 2008. She became the PM for the second consecutive term in 2014 against all odds.Hasina has demonstrated how it is possible to venture into the Padma Bridge construction without any World Bank funding, defying opposition of all big powers. Foreign investors’ confidence in Bangladesh is on the rise, data show.Foreign direct investment (FDI) to the country has almost tripled since Awami League returned to power in 2008. Data from Bangladesh Bank, the central bank, show the country received FDI worth $961 million in 2008-09 while the inflow increased to $2,454.81 million in 2016-17. Bangladesh received $2,607 million worth of foreign investment from July to May in 2017-18.The introduction of a one-stop service to enable ease of doing business, establishing the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority and the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority are steps taken towards developing an environment for investment, senior Bangladesh officials told ET Magazine. The One-Stop Service Act will help remove all difficulties investors face before starting their businesses and will facilitate the formation of an authority that will ensure quick service for investors from a single office, the officials said.In his budget speech last June, then Bangladesh finance minister AMA Muhith said the government has reviewed failures to attract FDI and taken steps to identify the obstacles and the action to overcome them.“I firmly believe that with the ushering in of a stable and advanced economy after 2015, we were able to attract more foreign investment,” he said. The Hasina government enacted the Bangladesh Economic Zones Act, in 2010, to attract more foreign investment. It wanted to create two economic zones (EZ) under public-private partnership in Mongla and Mirsharai — while developing four economic zones with China, India, and Japan under a government-to-government initiative. India will establish economic zones in Mirsharai and Mongla, and land acquisition is complete for Japan’s special in Araihazar of Narayanganj; the Chinese special EZ is in Anwara.“Compared to the past BNPJamaat government of 2001-06 — which virtually patronised all radical Islamic groups and pro-Pakistan forces and was even involved in engineering a grenade attack Awami League rally in Dhaka targeting Sheikh Hasina when she was addressing an anti-terrorism gathering on August 21, 2004 — it was a huge relief for all those who are opposed to Islamic radicalism, terrorism and corruption. It is only appropriate that Sheikh Hasina and Awami League be in power in 2021 when Bangladesh celebrates 50 years of its independence,” said a senior Dhaka-based civil society member, who did not want to be named.Connectivity between Bangladesh and neighbouring countries, including India, has received a great boost in the past 10 years. Bangladesh is playing a leading role in the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, which groups together Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan in a forum for multilateral cooperation. Bangladesh is uniquely positioned to take advantage of its location in the eastern region of South Asia. It will be a hub for initiatives that seek to connect Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal with Asean and other East Asian countries.With deeper trade, investment and connectivity linkages within the sub-region, Bangladesh can benefit from new markets, new import sources of highquality and better-priced products, increasing opportunities for transport and logistics services, said an Indian official, who did not want to be named.Bangladesh is trying to engage in various subregional connectivity projects through road, rail and sea routes with India. These connectivity projects can create more trade opportunities for Bangladesh with the northeastern states of India. India is interested in road and railway transit through Bangladesh as it would lower the cost and time to send goods to its Northeast.Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India (BBIN), a group of sub-regional countries in eastern South Asia, signed a landmark Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) in 2015 for the regulation of passenger, personnel and cargo vehicular traffic among the four south Asian neighbours. The agreement, based on the European Model, has paved the way for seamless movement of goods and people across the border for the benefit and integration of the region and its economic development. The pact aims to connect landlocked Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and northeastern Indian territories with the Chittagong and Kolkata ports. Bangladesh and Nepal launched a bus service through India on April 24, 2018, under MVA.The Dhaka-Kolkata-Agartala and the Dhaka-Shillong-Guwahati bus services were started in 2015 under this agreement. Both Bangladesh and India agreed to consider introducing new bus service linking Khulna-Kolkata and Jessore-Kolkata. Bangladesh and India are taking initiatives to revive the traditional rail routes to enhance travel of passengers and transportation of goods.Further regional connectivity between Bangladesh and its neighbours is expected in the implementation of the planned concept of “Blue Economy” — sustainable use of ocean resources for growth — now that Bangladesh is in receipt of new marine territories as a result of the maritime verdict wins through arbitration against India and Myanmar. The geographic location of Bangladesh’s deepsea ports may greatly lead to trade expansion.Bangladesh has an immense opportunity to become a regional transport hub not only for Saarc countries but also for China and other Asian countries, according to a senior official in Dhaka. Besides, in 2016, Bangladesh and India launched coastal shipping to allow river vessels to carry cargo between the two countries.The erstwhile Khaleda Zia regime in Bangladesh had strong reservations against granting connectivity and transit to the neighbours on the pretext that it would infringe on the sovereignty of Bangladesh. It was the Hasina-led government that realised that granting connectivity and transit was a win-win situation for Bangladesh as, apart from to earning revenue, it would allow local entrepreneurs to access the markets in Northeast India and beyond and enable greater people-to-people contact in a smooth way.India’s grant for infrastructure development will enable corridors for sub-regional connectivity among Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India and transit of people and goods through India’s eastern neighbour. Secularism By conservative estimates, religious minorities comprise around 12% of the current population of Bangladesh. Among them, Hindus constitute 10%, Buddhists 1%, Christians 0.50% and ethnic minorities less than 1%.The Awami League, which spearheaded the Liberation War under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, infused secularism as a guiding principle of the state along with democracy, nationalism, and socialism in the country’s 1972 Constitution. However, the party’s efforts have been intermittently reversed and overturned when other dispensations, like BNP and the military regime of General Muhammad Ershad, assumed power and formed a government. These governments played the Islamist card.In the past decade, perhaps one of the most visible positive change in the condition of the religious minorities across Bangladesh has been their increased share in government jobs. Religious minorities comprise 5-7% of government employment, and in the police force, it is about 10%.The Hasina-led Awami League government espouses the slogan “Dhormo jaar jaar, utsob shobar (Religion as per one’s own, but festivals common to all)” as a testimony of its secular values. A big success of Hasina has been the bold move to bring the war criminals of 1971 to justice. These war criminals earlier shared power with Khaleda Zia and wielded tremendous political clout during the BNP regime.Another achievement that Hasina can be credited with is that her government is engaged in a relentless battle against radicalisation. The challenges the Hasina government would have to overcome during the next five years include not falling into a Chinese debt trap, fighting corruption and strengthening institutions to maintain economic growth.