By: Mohammad Khair AlWadi . Former Syrian Ambassador to China.
Many articles have been written about the economic miracles that have been achieved in the world during the last half century, such as the Chinese, Malaysian, and Singaporean miracles. But what many do not know is that there is a real feat that amounts to a miracle, accomplished silently and away from the limelight, a feat that took place in an Islamic country. Exemplary in its underdevelopment, poverty, natural disasters and instability, this country is Bangladesh. The interesting thing is that this miracle was led by a woman named Sheikha Hasina Wajid.
I met Sheikh Hasina on many occasions. And every time I became more impressed by her self-confidence, her intelligence, and her ability to persuade and expand her circle of friends. Many of the statements made by this high-ranking politician are firmly established in my memory. Among them are that poverty and backwardness are not a destiny written upon Muslims, that authority should be a means of developing the country, that reforms remain suspended in the air unless the people’s standard of living is improved, and that political stability – which is the basic condition for growth – cannot be achieved unless the ruler is armed with patience. With farsightedness, wisdom, national responsibility and a sense of justice.
Sheikh Hasina has led Bangladesh for five intermittent periods, and during a quarter of a century of her continuous rule to date, she has managed to perform a rare miracle in a country whose name has been linked to eternal poverty, backwardness, natural disasters, and lack of resources. Sheikh Hasina began her reign by eliminating problems and disputes with neighboring countries – especially India, and convinced internal religious extremist movements to join the government’s efforts to advance the country. Thus, Sheikh Hasina was able to provide an appropriate domestic and foreign policy environment to implement her ambitious development program. It was also able to lure China into investing tens of billions in Bangladesh. It did the same with South Korea, Japan, and Malaysia. The Hasina government’s policy succeeded in freeing its 170 million people from the clutches of hunger, illiteracy, military coups, civil clashes, and instability. Per capita income in Bangladesh rose from five dollars in the 1970s to about $3,000 now, outperforming India, Pakistan, and Indonesia. Bangladesh has also transformed from a country where 80 percent of its population was illiterate – to a country that occupies second place in the world after India – in providing global communications networks with experts and specialists. Bangladesh now occupies leading positions in the world in educating females and youth, and in the percentage of spending on education and rehabilitation programmes. The government’s “Digital Bangladesh” program has raised the percentage of people able to participate in Internet networks to 90 percent, which is one of the highest percentages in the world. During the past five years, the Bangladeshi economy has maintained one of the highest growth rates in the world, amounting to about 7%. At the same time, Bangladesh, with a limited area (148 thousand square kilometers), has become the second largest exporter of textiles, rice, mangoes, jute and vegetables in the world, and an important destination. For global investments.
The unique experience in combating poverty, which was founded by the Bangladeshi economist and banker, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, is impressive. This person established the Grameen Bank, which provided small loans to the poor without requiring financial guarantees. This experience became the most prominent development program in the countries of the South. This bank was able to save millions of people from poverty (most of them women), by helping them establish small development projects. The number of customers with this bank reached about forty million people. Muhammad Yunus contributed to accelerating the pace of small projects in the private sector, which today constitutes about 90 percent of the country’s economy.
In 2019, Sheikh Hasina’s government celebrated the United Nations resolution, which deemed that Bangladesh had fallen out of the realm of the least developed countries in the world. This government has developed long-term future programs to develop the country and place it among the economically advanced countries in the world.
With this article, I wanted to shed light on the emergence of a new economic giant in Asia, Bangladesh – which – thanks to its government and despite the lack of resources – was able to move the country from backwardness, poverty and illiteracy, to the steps of progress, wealth and prosperous life for its people.
3/18/202(translated by Google)
2024-03-24