ICE Business Times September 2017

Contents TIMES

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From the Editor

WORD OF MOUTH 08 State of Affairs 10 Banking Corner 14 Happening (Special Events) 128 Happening 20

Column by Shamsul Huq Zahid

DEVELOPMENT TALK 40 Climate Change Challenges and Its Preparation in Bangladesh by Dr. Atiq Rahman 44 Making Dhaka More Livable by Martin Rama 46 Connection and Connectedness by Dr. Selim Jahan 50 The Daunting Task of Mobilizing Resources

by Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen 53 The City is the Challenge by Dr. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf PHOTO STORY 58 The Saga of Climate Change SPECIAL REPORT 74 Violence Against Women INTERVIEWS 24 H.E. Alexander I. Ignatov, Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh 28 Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Chairman, PKSF 38 Dr. Alvin Hong & Dr. Tan Chong Hiok; Senior Consultants from Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore 68 Taslim Ahmed, CEO, Unitrend Limited 70 Mohammed Abdur Rahim, Vice Chairman, DBL Group 86 Imtiaz Hussain, CEO, RAK Ceramics (Bangladesh) Limited 90 Md. Farhan Mosharraf, Director, Paradise Group 100 Mizanur Rahman Kiron, Founder and President, PDF

a global business magazine from bangladesh

Contents TIMES

TIMES

Vol. 8 No. 01 | September 2017

Publisher & Editor Director, International Publications Executive Director Managing Editor Assistant Editor Sub Editor Staff Feature Writer Business Development Manager Designer Business Development Finance & Accounts Sales & Distribution

: : : : : : : : : : : : : :

Abul Khair Zeenat Chowdhury Nawshin Khair Tawhidur Rashid Irad Mustafa Ishrat Jahan Nasirra Ahsan Asaduzzaman Sk. Yeahhia Md. Nizam Uddin Forhad Mohammad Imran Md. Abdul Alim Md. Nazrul Islam Md. Rubel Khan

This issue’s Photographs by Din M Shibly Kazi Mukul

Editorial & Marketing Queries tawhidur.rashid@ibtbd.net or send us a note at www.facebook.com/icebusinesstimes www.twitter.com/BusinessTimesBD

Be sure to visit our website www.ibtbd.net

FEATURES 37 Lessons Learned: You Are Not Normal 92 USAID: In Bloom 96 Where Do We Go From Here?

104 Capitalizing on the Dynamics of Service Value Chain Globalization 106 Another Brick in the Wall?

110 Blockchain and Our Future 112 The Undergraduate CEO 116 CSR – Plant for Planet 118 Beyond the Business 124 Tech: Blessed By Piracy?

132 Capital Market Update

Published by Abul Khair on behalf of ICE Media Limited Kushal Centre, Plot 29, Sector 3, Uttara C/A, Dhaka- 1230 and printed at M.K. Printers,189/1, Tejgaon I/A, Dhaka-1208 Editorial and Commercial office: 3rd Floor, House: 4, Block: B, Road: 23 A, Banani, Dhaka 1213 Advertising, Sales, Subscription and Distribution: 01812656961, 01715732425, 01759391168, 01850824294, 01611227676 Tel: 02 55035336-8, 09666773313

* Not all the views expressed in the columns and interviews are the views of the magazine.

FROM THE EDITOR As the torch bearers of a developing nation, the story of our lives revolves around combatting many moments of lingering uncertainty. Nietzsche said it best when he said, “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in this suffering.� Time and again, generation after generation have been faced one great struggle after another. How the nations have dealt with these struggles have defined them for years to come. Bangladesh is no different. With several hurdles looming in the not so distant future, it is up to us to decide whether we want to jump, sidestep or hammer through these hurdles.

On our way to glory many hindrances have obscured our view of success with climate change being one of the major trials. After the despair of 1988, the rising concerns from the weather forecasts have made it obligatory for us to ponder on the possibilities of having another major flood. Back in 1988, during the flood, our increasing strength as a nation had led us to overcome the hunger and distress so we could rise as a healthy nation again.

Therefore, it goes that we will able to tackle the challenges that the floods of 2017 have exposed us to. With the availability of improved policies and a stronger economy behind us, the present government should have an easier time than their counterparts did in 1988.

However, with facing food scarcity rearing its ugly head again for the first time in 10 years, preemptive approaches regarding food safety must be at the top of the list of these measures.

The nation, in order to implement the lessons learned from the previous catastrophic events, must do short follow ups to prevent history from repeating itself.

The spreading of urbanization across major cities throughout the country has also given rise to several problems in the capital such as traffic congestion, crowded living spaces, and increased air pollution. Where the culturally vibrant Dhaka city is the central hub of decision making, the decentralization of the system may help reduce problems of urbanization and increase employment elsewhere. Therefore, as an emerging economy, it is in our best interest to take the cities as decisive places with defining capabilities besides being the battlegrounds of our anxieties, as stated by the eminent urbanist, Professor Kazi Khaleed Ashraf.

The wider aspects of community management also come into existence with the vital concerns of urbanization. Information discrepancy regarding the urban civic culture does a great deal to degrade the country’s environment. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to address issues such as dumping and littering. But to harp on about the lack of governments initiative in this area just does not do it anymore. To be part of a community means taking responsibility for the upkeep of that community. Thus, harnessing the power of the masses to make the community more livable is what we need to preach. Because as they say, there really is power in numbers.

Word of mouth

S TAT E O F A F FA I R S

The Honorable Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina attending the discussion meeting arranged by Bangladesh Awami League on the occasion of National Mourning Day at BICC

Courtesy call by General Surapong Suwana-adth, Chief of Defence Forces, Royal Thai Armed Forces as he visits Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Ganabhaban

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited the the flood-ravaged Dinajpur district to see for herself the devastation caused by the ongoing floods

Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid her respects to the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by placing a wreath at his mazar, marking his 42nd death anniversary on the National Mourning Day

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BANKING CORNER

Word of mouth Reshadur Rahman, Chairman of Dhaka Bank Limited along with Altaf Hossain Sarker, Director of Dhaka Bank Limited donated Tk 3 crore to Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for the rehabilitation of the recent flood affected people all over the country. The cheque was ceremoniously handed over to the Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Prime Minister’s Office on August 23, 2017

BRAC Bank Limited signed an agreement with International Finance Corporation (IFC) for promoting Women Entrepreneurs. This is the first of its kind in Bangladesh, a joint initiative of the IFC and Goldman Sachs Foundation

A cooperation agreement has been signed between Bangladesh Bank and International Finance Corporation on 09/08/2017 for the project titled "Catalyzing Access to Finance for Women SME Entrepreneurs in Bangladesh." Shitangshu Kumar Sur Chowdhury, Deputy Governor, Bangladesh Bank graced the ceremony as chief guest. As special guest, Mr. Neeraj Verma, Practice Manager, World Bank; Mr. Douglas Pearce, Practice Manager, World Bank; Ms. Wendy J Werner, Country Manager, IFC were present. Besides, in the occasion high up officials of WB, IFC and SME&SPD were present.

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W O R D

O F

M O U T H

B A N K I N G C O R N E R

Jamuna Bank Foundation organized a "Scholarship giving ceremony" to unprivileged and autistic but meritorious students and children of employees of Jamuna Bank who have got GPA-5 in SSC

A Training program on ‘Administration of Credit Facilities-Documentati on and Disbursement’ was held at Newly Inaugurated Meghna Bank Training Centre on August 19, 2017

The 34th Annual General Meeting of National Bank Limited was held on Sunday, the 20th of August 2017.

Zainul Haque Sikder, Chairman of the Bank, presided over the meeting.

20% Stock Dividend was approved for the year ended on the 31st December, 2016 in the Annual General Meeting

Latifur Rahman, Chairman and CEO, Transcom Group spoke as "A Visionary Leader" and Keynote speaker at a recently held Country Leadership Team event of Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh. Rahman had a lively conversation with Abrar A. Anwar, CEO, Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh and shared invaluable insights from his exceptional leadership journey and the rise of Transcom Group

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HAPPENING

Word of mouth

SPECIAL EVENTS

Meghna Group of Industries Presents 7th Communication Summit With the theme ‘Empowering Creativity through a Multi-connected World’, the seventh edition of Communication Summit, Presented by Meghna Group of Industries held on 19th August in Dhaka. The daylong summit was attended by around 350 professionals from business organizations, marketing and creative agencies.

Communication Summit is the leading platform in Bangladesh, which brings experts and specialists in the field of creative communication, both local and global, under one roof.

Commenced in 2009, the summit has been playing a vital role in Bangladeshi creative

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communication and advertising industry. This year, the summit comprised of 3 keynote sessions, 2 panel discussions, 2 workshops, and 2 agencies’ case studies presentations. Exclusive Cannes Lions showcasing was also there at the summit premises, for the attendees.

The distinguished speakers for this year’s summit were K V Shridhar, Founder & Chief Creative Officer, HyperCollective; Prof. Dr. Jonathan A. J. Wilson, Professor & Consultant expert in ABCDs of Business & Culture, Halal, Muslim & Ethnic Markets, GSM London; and Vikas Mehta, Ex-CEO, Lowe, Dubai.

Two intensive panel discussions

took place having multiple local and global industry experts in the panels.

The summit was followed by Commward, Excellence in Creative Communication – an initiative of Bangladesh Brand Forum to inspire creativity in marketing communication and honor the best ad campaigns of the country which were launched and run during the previous year.

This year, Communication Summit was presented by Meghna Group of Industries, supported by RANGS Toshiba, Powered by The Daily Star and organized in Association with Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

W O R D

O F

M OU T H

HAPPENING

ASIF IQBAL, Executive Director, Marketing, Meghna Group of Industries commented saying, “We decided to get involved with Commward 2017 because Meghna Group of Industries, with its vision and mission, encourages ideas and creativity thus driving innovation. We think, in communication, innovation comes in everyday and we need to associate not only to project ourselves but also to learn from all the activities that are there.”

RUBAIYAT JAMIL, CEO, RANGS Industries Ltd said, “To recognize brands, to honor creative excellence in Bangladesh, what could be a better platform than Commward! This year, we find it to be a privilege to be able to work with Bangladesh Brand Forum. Along with the ceremony and the recognition of creative campaigns, what really excited us was the Center of Knowledge and Innovation that BBF is coming up with. And that’s something we really want to be part of because that goes hand in hand with RANGS Toshiba and our group company Rancon Holdings’ ethos.”

SHARIFUL ISLAM, Founder & Managing Director, Bangladesh Brand Forum also mentioned, “The movement has just started. As we enter more and more into the digital age, also referred to as the 4th industrial revolution we keep on asking ‘Will machine replace our jobs, will AI do human jobs?’ We may not know clearly what is going to happen, but we do know that Creativity is going to be one of the most critical skillsets for the future. Comwmard is the platform through which we celebrate the power of creativity and highlight the need to harness the creative mindset for professionals, business leaders, and more specifically for agency professionals. We want to share that these skillsets are needed beyond the obvious agency professionals. And through them, their works, their thinking we want to push the need for creativity beyond. This year, in addition to summit and award which we do every year, we have set our goal on how we plan to push that vision, which we feel will be critical, not for the industry only but for the entire nation. If as a nation we are to handle and solve the multitude of problems which we face, there is no other way but to do so through applying our creative selves.”

The events are also supported by Event Partner Le Méridien Dhaka, Strategic Partner Roaring Lions, Knowledge Partner Marketing Society of Bangladesh, Airlines Partner Eithad Airways, Life Style Partner Advanced Development Technologies, IT Partner AAMRA, PR Partner Masthead PR, TV Partner Ekattor TV, Radio Partner Radio Today, Social Media Partner Webable, Audio Visual Partner Aatosh, Digital Content Partner Fireflame Media, and Visual Content Partner Torun.

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W O R D

O F

M OU T H

HAPPENING

SPECIAL EVENTS

Career Camp 2017 IPDC presents Career Camp 2017 powered

by Cooper's Bakery took place on the 5th of August 2017.

Career Camp is a signature event of Don Sumdany Facilitaion and Consultancy.

Inspiring corporate icons and leaders will be adorning the event as speakers. Rafiath Rashid Mithila (Head of Early Childhood Development, BRAC International; Actress), Rahel Ahmed (DMD, Prime Bank Ltd), Shahriar Amin (Head of Marketing, in a consumer good selling multinationals), Raquib Fakhrul Rocky (Managing Director – Munshi Enterprise Ltd), Tajdin Hassan (Head of Marketing, The Daily Star), Mominul Islam (Managing Director & CEO, IPDC Finance), Ahmed Pasha (Director, Strategic HR – Edison Group), Golam Raihan (Regional Sales Manager – Bangladesh / Srilanka / Nepal, P&G), G. Sumdany Don (Chief Inspirational Officer,

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Don Sumdany Facilitation and Consultancy) were the speakers of the day. Enriching us with their deep knowledge, the speakers provided us with an insight about achieving greatness in one's career.

G. Sumdany Don spoke about hard work and practice. He said that, "Geniuses are made and not born. Talent works to a small extent but what works the most is practice.”

He shared his thought that each person is exceptional and can achieve greatness in whatever they do by hard work and perseverance.

Shahriar Amin, Head of Marketing in a Consumer Goods Selling Multinational Company, shared his enthusiasm and passion with our audience and tells them that career is simply a journey through learning, work and other aspects of life. He emphasizes that each person has their own skill and must know what sets them apart from other people. His knowledge has benefited many people who are in search of their identity and passion.

Md. Tajdin Hassan another dynamic and young personality, shared his belief that dreams are our goals with a deadline. Mominul Islam, the Managing Director of IPDC Finance Bangladesh, started with the importance of knowing about the fourth industrial revolution which is mainly based on AI, nanotechnology, biotechnology etc.

He emphasized on the top skills required in the future job market and the most demanding jobs of 2030. Golam Raihan, Regional Manager of Procter and Gamble, Bangladesh/ Srilanka/ Nepal spoke exceptionally well at the event. The speaker suggested people to read the books 'How to have a good day' and 'Grit' to have a better understanding about the human mind and lead a good life. Rahel Ahmed, the DMD of Prime Bank, told the audience to stick to their passion.

Raquib Fakhrul Rocky, Managing Director, Munshi Enterprise Ltd. shared his thoughts about the difference between entrepreneurs and many people. He told people that each person is their own identity, and to build up that identity you need to have passion. Ahmed Pasha, Director Strategic HR, studied economics but he said that perseverance helped him reach his goals. He emphasized that it is important in life to note what one is passionate about, whether they are able to work with passion and whether their work leaves an impact in the society. Rafiath Rashid Mithila, spoke about never ever, ever giving up. The key to achieving success is to hold on to hope even in your darkest days. She said that her road to success has been full of ups and downs but a positive mind leads to a positive life.

The event was sponsored by IPDC Finance and powered by Cooper’s Bakery Bangladesh. Career Camp is a Don Sumdany signature event.

WiKreate Ltd. was the event partner. ICE Business Times was the magazine partner of the event. Radio Foorti, GTV, The Daily Star, Next Step, Jete Chao, Dhaka Live, Priyo.com were the other partners and collaborators of the event.

Column

By Shamsul Huq Zahid

NEW FISCAL YEAR:

NOT AN AUSPICIOUS BEGINNING T

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he start of the new financial year (2017-18), by any measure, has not been that auspicious. The prospect of the economy hitting the growth target, set at 7.4% this fiscal, now appears clouded.

The new financial year inherited a few negatives such as falling remittance income, the lackluster growth of exports leading to the largest-ever trade deficit and stagnancy in investment from the previous fiscal year.

But on the top of everything nature after quite a long gap, ten years, to be precise, seems to be very hostile this time. Lately, it has started taking a heavy toll on the economy. Natural calamities such as recurrent floods are more likely to upset, at least partially, the arithmetic the policymakers have done about growth.

The flash floods in the Haor areas caused the first damage. Though the calamity occurred in the latter part of the immediate past fiscal year, its ill-effects do have a bearing on the performance of the economy during the current financial year.

THE WRITER IS A SENIOR J O U R N A L I S T. H E C A N B E R E A C H E D AT ZAHIDMAR10@GMAIL.COM

Nearly one-fifth of the country’s the last Boro output was destroyed by the flash flood. The loss of crops coupled with callousness on the part of the Ministry of Food to maintain the government’s buffer food stock at a satisfactory level has put the country’s food security under threat.

Then again, the country has been reeling under these recurring floods over the last couple of months. More than 19 districts in the north, northeastern and central regions are severely affected. An estimated 17 million people in these districts are in distress. The floods have caused extensive damage to standing crops, and the prospect of next Aman rice crop in many flood-hit areas is not that bright as floods have destroyed seedbeds there. Farmers may not get enough time to grow Aman seedlings for transplantation. Thus, any substantial fall in following Aman output might prove a severe problem for the economy.

Though belated, the government has embarked on a program to procure a

C O L U M N S H A M S U L H U Q Z A H I D

significant volume of food grains, rice in particular, from external sources. However, the timing of the government’s entry into the global rice market has not been perfect. The global rice market was dull until recently because of weak demand for the staple. But many rice exporting countries, namely, India, Vietnam, and Thailand, have raised their prices sensing urgency on the part of Bangladesh in the case of purchase of a substantial quantity of rice. The entry of the Philippines and Sri Lanka lately as procurers of rice has also heated up the market.

The country’s import expenditures in all likelihood would go further up because of the procurement of food from the international markets by the government and the private sector traders.

Besides, an alarming feature of the spending on imports has been the increase in capital goods import in recent years. The issue has been noted by various quarters with grave concern, but the policymakers have not yet tried earnestly to find the causes behind it.

The rise in imports is supposed to be reflected in the country’s income from exports. But there has been a gross mismatch between the growth of imports and that of exports. It is widely suspected that funds are being transferred illegally through trade transactions, the capital goods import being the main conduit. This phenomenon is, undoubtedly, hurting the economy.

The country’s exports, in terms of value, recorded a notable rise to $3.2 billion in the first month of the current fiscal over that of the corresponding month of the previous fiscal, but the same was slightly below the target. Shipments of the major readymade garments totaled $2.4 billion, up 17% on year-on-year basis. The export performance in the first month of the new fiscal is quite encouraging. But the country’s foreign trade for the last few weeks suffered much because of severe congestion at the country’s premier port at Chittagong. Damage caused

Though belated, the government has embarked on a program to procure a significant volume of food grains, rice in particular, from external sources.”

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to two gantry cranes by a foreign ship while berthing is responsible for keeping many ships waiting at the outer anchorage. The situation deteriorated to such an extent that many international shipping lines levied surcharges on users of their services at the Chittagong port. Besides, some shipping lines are now refusing to use the port.

These are, however, recurrent problems that the businesses face in this country. They have learned to live with those, notwithstanding the fact that they have to count costs for all these. The government is now working overtime to improve the situation at the Chittagong port. But the fact remains that the port suffers badly from a shortage of equipment, efficient human resources, and space. A move is on to appoint an international operator to manage the affairs at the port. If that is done through a fair selection process, some improvement in port operations is expected.

As mentioned earlier, floods have done substantial damage to life and properties this year. There have been allegations that the government is not doing enough to help the people affected by the natural calamity.

However, such charges are common in this part of the world.

What will be crucial under the present circumstances is the post-flood rehabilitation work in the affected districts. The government would have to spend a substantial sum on the program, only if the government is sincere in helping the flood-hit people.

The economy now faces the risk of inflationary pressure. The prices of many food items, including rice and vegetables, have gone up in the recent months. Though official data show otherwise, the people are now experiencing the bite of the soaring prices of many essential items. Despite the substantial import of rice by the government and the private sector, the prices of the main staple are sticking to higher levels.

The central bank’s half-yearly monetary policy (July-December), announced some days back, was found to be particularly focused on the issue of inflation.

With a major post-flood rehabilitation task remaining on its shoulder, the government appears to be not comfortable with the revenue situation. It suffered a setback when it had to defer for another two years the enforcement of the new VAT law. The new law was supposed to mobilize an estimated Tk 200 billion to the state coffer.

Thus, the government’s capacity to maneuver as far as spending is concerned this year seems to be limited. It might be forced to go for austerity in some cases.

Bilateral Relations

H.E. ALEXANDER I. IGNATOV

Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the People's Republic of Bangladesh

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“At present we do not have a legal basis for foreign workers from Bangladesh to come to our country.

Russia and Bangladesh do not even have an extradition treaty, and that is a significant restraint.�

I N T E R V I E W H . E . A L E X A N D E R I . I G N AT O V

H.E. Alexander I. Ignatov is the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the People's Republic of Bangladesh.

He graduated in 1978 from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and joined the diplomatic services in the same year. He has served in different capacities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and diplomatic missions in various countries.

He worked at the Embassy of the USSR in Bangladesh (1978 – 1980), after which he spent time in numerous other nations. In 2015 he became the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in the People's Republic of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh and Russia have a historical bond from the birth of Bangladesh, and now it rises to new heights with the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. Our countries are getting closer day by day.

How are you evaluating the relations between Russia and Bangladesh?

Relations of traditional friendship between our two countries are a matter of pride for us. At present, we continue to build up our cooperation in all spheres. The political dialogue between the two nations, including at the highest level, is intensifying and is very productive. Moscow and Dhaka share a common stance on the majority of international issues and maintain regular political contact.

The progress in our economic relations gives us particular satisfaction. The Rooppur NPP is undoubtedly our joint flagship project.

Russia attaches great importance to its realization. Its aim is to contribute to solving the power deficit problem in Bangladesh, thus ensuring the smooth economic development of this country.

Naturally, bilateral cooperation can be further enhanced through many dimensions.

To develop broad-based cooperation in various spheres, the Intergovernmental

Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation was established on March 1st this year. We hope that it will give a new impetus to our political relations, strengthen ties between business communities of our countries and bolster the exchange of information and ideas between Moscow and Dhaka.

What do you think about future trade relationship between Bangladesh and Russia?

Last year, we had a record-high trade turnover, which exceeded $1.4 billion. And we are expecting a new record this year.

Already, in the first quarter of 2017, our bilateral trade volume was 63% higher than at the same period last year. It proves that we have huge potential to develop our commercial relations. Bangladesh exports garments and leather products to Russia while importing grain, machinery, various equipment, metals, minerals and fertilizers from our country. I am convinced, both countries can diversify their exports.

What is your opinion about the business environment and possibilities of Bangladesh in the future?

The Bangladesh economy is developing very fast nowadays and has tremendous untapped potential. First of all, it is a market of 160 million people. Secondly, we recognize that the Government of Bangladesh is actively developing special economic zones with highly favorable investment climate. Thirdly, Bangladesh is the world’s 2nd largest ready-made garment (RMG) manufacturing hub after China, a significant producer of jute and jute goods, leather and leather products, sea-foods, handicrafts. I believe, as soon as the problem of poverty is solved, Bangladesh will enter a group of newly industrialized countries.

At this stage of globalization, IT has surfaced has an important sector. What are the bilateral activities in this area?

In the IT sphere, the bilateral cooperation goes mostly along the B2B lines. I will mention a few examples of successful Russian IT projects in Bangladesh. For instance, Kaspersky Lab, a world reputed Russian cyber security solution providing company, is popular in Bangladesh and commands an exclusively large market share

www.ibtbd.net

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I N T E R V I E W H . E . A L E X A N D E R I . I G N AT O V

“THE ROOPPUR NPP IS UNDOUBTEDLY OUR JOINT FLAGSHIP PROJECT. RUSSIA ATTACHES GREAT IMPORTANCE TO ITS REALIZATION. ITS AIM IS TO CONTRIBUTE TO SOLVING THE POWER DEFICIT PROBLEM IN BANGLADESH, THUS ENSURING THE SMOOTH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THIS COUNTRY. ”

in the local IT industry. It has become a household name although back in 2008 it was simply a cyber-security software pioneer here.

Also, GS Group, an international investment and industry holding company, provided technologies to launch RealVU – the first direct-to-home (DTH) digital television service in Bangladesh. I personally use it and enjoy it daily. The project was implemented in partnership with the Bangladeshi conglomerate BEXIMCO. Currently, DTH platform RealVU offers more than 100 TV channels in SD and HD quality, including Russia Today TV Channel (RTTV).

Russian investments and technologies were used to create Ollo Internet Company. Russia is interested in developing further cooperation with Bangladesh in the IT area.

RITE (Russian IT Export), a specialized company of Rostec State Corporation, is interested in entering the Bangladeshi market, for example. We hope that our cooperation in the field of information technologies will intensify in the near future and we are working to make it a reality.

Young people in Bangladesh are very much interested in studying in Russia.

What can you say about the cooperation between our countries in the education sector?

The main aim of our cooperation in the education sector is to provide a direct contribution to the development of the country’s human resources. Our bilateral collaboration in this sphere goes back to the

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1970s when Bangladesh was making its first steps as an independent state. Since that time, over five thousand students from Bangladesh have graduated from Russian institutions of higher education. Now they work almost in all spheres, including governmental bodies and private business.

The Soviet & Russian Alumni Association of Bangladesh unites all those who studied in our country.

The Russian Federation gives foreign citizens an opportunity to receive higher education in Russian educational institutions at the expense of the Russian federal budget or on a commercial basis in accordance with relevant contracts on providing paid educational services. In 2017, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation allocated for Bangladeshi students 53 full-paid scholarships, 20 of them, and I stress it - for nuclear science. For those who would like to apply to Russian universities, I recommend using the online system RUSSIA.STUDY (http://russia.study) which is a source of information about Russian higher education institutions. It also lets foreign citizens submit application documents online and follow the results of the selection process.

Potential applicants from Bangladesh may get additional information about Russian universities and available scholarships at the Education Section of the Russian Centre of Science and Culture in Dhaka.

Are you taking human resources from Bangladesh for the growing economy of Russia?

I am frequently asked about this issue. At present we do not have a legal basis for foreign workers from Bangladesh to come to our country. Russia and Bangladesh do not even have an extradition treaty, and that is a significant restraint. We cannot let foreign workers enter our country without it. If a foreigner comes to Russia and, say, commits a crime, we have to send him back, which is impossible without an extradition agreement.

Unless we have this agreement signed with Bangladesh, it will be impossible for Russia to accept workers from Bangladesh. We have extradition agreements with many countries.

In fact, we proposed to sign the deal ten years ago, but we are still waiting for feedback from Bangladesh. Another problem in taking migrant workers from Bangladesh to Russia is the language problem. To work in Russia, it is essential to know Russian.

Interview OF THE MONTH

DR. QAZI KHOLIQUZZAMAN AHMAD Chairman Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF)

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Q

INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH DR. QAZI KHOLIQUZZAMAN AHMAD

Historically Bangladesh started as a command economy but now it grows as a market led economy. As you are a keen observer of this economic development, how would you describe the country’s evolution over the years?

“Human capability shortages at all levels of society and economy is a serious problem in the context of moving on to an accelerated and sustainable development pathway.”

Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad is a leading Bangladeshi economist, development thinker and activist. He is also the Chairman of the Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), which is the largest rural development funding, skill development and management support agency in Bangladesh.

Kholiquzzaman is also the Chairman of the Dhaka School of Economics (DScE), a Constituent Institution of the University of Dhaka, devoted to post-graduate studies in economics and related subjects. He completed his Bachelors and Masters in Economics from the University of Dhaka and later he went to the London School of Economics on a national merit fellowship and obtained his MPhil and PhD degrees. He was active in promoting Bangladesh's nationalist aspirations during the 1960s and worked in the Planning Cell of Bangladesh Government-in-Exile during the War of Liberation of Bangladesh in 1971.

He spent 23 years in the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and its preceding organization, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), having been a Research Director for a number of years. He left BIDS in 1987 and then worked as the Chairman of Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (BUP), which he helped set up in 1980. He left BUP on taking over as chairman of the Governing Body of PKSF in November 2009.

Through the course of his career, Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad has received numerous accolades for his work including Ekushey Padak and MTC Global Life Time Achievement Award by MTC Global—A Global Think Tank in Higher Education, Bangalore, India. He was a member of the team that contributed to the Award of Nobel Peace Prize to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007. His publications, research reports and unpublished papers include 38 books and over 250 articles. He is also a well-known expert on water and climate change issues.

The Bangladesh Awami League, the political party that led the Independence movement had in its agenda the promotion of people-centered development in independent Bangladesh. Once Liberation was achieved in December 1971, the Awami League Government took steps in that direction. The industries abandoned by the Pakistani owners and those owned by Bangladeshis were nationalized. In particular, jute manufacturing, textile, and sugar industries were brought under State ownership. Banking and insurance, water transportation sectors were also nationalized. Primary schools were nationalized.

However, an apparent mistake was made in the management of the nationalized Bangladeshi owned industries in that the former owners were given the responsibility of management in many cases. Of course, this perhaps had to be done per force, because of critical shortage of qualified industrial management personnel in the country. The former owners in many cases did not take the job of managing the industries seriously. Some of them in fact harmed the industries by using various means to make money themselves. That led to a decline in the efficiency and profitability of the industries.

The jute manufacturing industry was not in reality profitable, even during pre-independence period. However, the owners made profits even when the prices charged were below the costs of production. This was possible because of the ‘export bonus scheme’, which allowed the exporters to buy at official exchange rate a part of the foreign exchange earned and sell that to prospective foreign exchange purchasers. There was a high premium in the private sale of foreign currency, sometimes 150% or more. In the late 1960s, 30% of the export earnings from jute goods was allowed to be bought under the export bonus scheme. In fact, no export bonus was allowed for raw jute export until very late 1960s, when only a 10% export bonus was introduced. As a result, price of raw jute was dampened so that the jute manufacturing sector could buy raw jute at low prices. This, in fact, meant a transfer of income from jute growers (Bangladeshis) to jute manufactures (mostly West Pakistanis).

Since the benefits were easy to come by, because of the policy framework, the jute manufacturing industry was inherently inefficient in the Pakistani period although significant profits were being made by the owners. The management and other problems faced after Liberation further eroded the efficiency and profitability of the jute manufacturing industry. Later, Bangladeshi owned factories were returned to their owners but the whole sector remained problematic. As a result, many factories were shutdown. In fact, the Government policy up to mid-1990s was to contract the industry because it was determined that the industry had no future. The World Bank assisted the Government in that process. The largest jute mill, The Adamjee, was shutdown in 1994, without taking stock of its assets, liabilities and properties and also the plight of the employees.

Currently, there seems to be brighter prospects of the jute sector, largely because of increased environmental awareness. The synthetic products that replaced the jute www.ibtbd.net

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INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH DR. QAZI KHOLIQUZZAMAN AHMAD

goods are environmentally damaging and climate change-inducing. On the other hand, jute is bio-degradable.

Currently, the Government of Bangladesh is trying to revive the jute sector and there seems to be some progress already and prospects are enlarging. Some of the jute manufacturing factories are in the government sector and others are in the private sector and the overall policy is to support better performance by both. The government policy is also to promote quality raw jute production, ensuring quality seed and jute retting facilities.

In the meantime, the Ready Made Garments (RMG) sector has developed starting in the mid-1980s. Currently, the RMG and hosiery exports account for 75-80% of the total export earnings. It was exactly the same in relation to jute and jute goods exports in the 1970s. One hopes that the jute sector will again expand and export earnings will also increase while the RMG sector will continue to flourish. However, it is also important that efforts should be intensified to diversify exports, as currently the total export earnings virtually depend on 5 or 6 items or groups of items.

However, the philosophy of social control of industries and establishment of people-centric development has been abandoned.

The process started following the heinous act of killing Bangabandhu in August 1975.

Importance was then shifted to the market economy and gradually the industries were being denationalized. Eventually, the

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approach of people-centricism was abandoned and capital-centricism became the ruling paradigm. This process started with structural adjustment (privatization, deregulation, and minimum government), initiated in the late 1980s but particularly carried forward in the early 1990s. As a result, poverty and disparity increased steeply.

The ruling paradigm is still market-based. But, over the last decade or so, the emphasis on poverty reduction and employment generation for the downtrodden have been receiving significant state attention. Thus, poverty has been reduced sharply to 24% and extreme poverty to 12.9%. Infant, child and maternal mortality rates have declined sharply. At the same time, economic growth has been over 6% for seven or eight years, rising up to 7.24% in the fiscal year 2016-17. Thus, Bangladesh is now doing very well in terms of both economic growth and social progress which is recognized within the country and internationally. However, given the size of the population, poverty ratio of 24% translates into about 40 million and extreme poverty ratio of 12.9% into about 20 million. Thus, the number of the downtrodden remains high. On top of that, natural disasters such as cyclones, floods, river erosions, and salinity ingress are increasing, as a result of climate change, in terms of both frequency and devastation, causing many non-poor to become poor and many poor to become extremely poor and many extremely poor to become destitute. Moreover, damages to and destruction of infrastructure and other assets imply huge economic costs. The impacts of climate change are a very difficult area to address.

However, the Government has developed policies and strategies and using its own resources as much as possible to address climate change impacts. At the same time, internationally, Bangladesh is very active in, for example, calling upon the developed world and large greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters to sharply reduce their emissions,

with a view to arresting and reversing the now worsening process of climate change and also upon the international community to assist the vulnerable countries including Bangladesh with finances and technologies to address climate change.

As an expert on water-related issues, what are your thoughts on the current situation in Bangladesh in that regard?

Per capita water availability in Bangladesh on an annual basis is still robust. It is about 7,500 cubic metres (cm3), while in India and Pakistan it is only 1,500 to 2,000 cm3. But, Bangladesh’s problem is the distribution, which is highly skewed both spatially and seasonally.

For example, 80% of the total annual water run-off in Bangladesh occurs during the monsoon months while 20% in the dry season. The dry season is from 1 January to 31 May, but particularly difficult months are March and April. Thus, in the monsoon, the water is abundant and, in fact, can be and on occasions is a serious threat to life and property because of flooding, while in the dry season acute shortages of water, more so in north and western parts of Bangladesh, is also a serious problem.

The pattern of rainfall is shifting and changing as a result of climate change. That is, often, when it is supposed to rain it does not and when it not supposed to it does. At times, it becomes very heavy causing widespread inundations. For example, this year, flash flood in haors occurred about a month earlier then normal and became so devastating that the entire rice crop in those areas was lost, many people were displaced and many rendered homeless; and the household economies of the affected people were seriously affected. On the hill of that, a major flood has visited many parts of the country, which is ongoing. Thus, many more people are severely affected; a total of 5 to 6

INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH DR. QAZI KHOLIQUZZAMAN AHMAD

million is being mentioned. This, i.e. major flood, is a life and property threatening face of water.

Another devastating problem is water-logging in various parts of the country as a result of blockages created by fishing gher and also unplanned and unauthorized structures. Water-logging is also a serious problem in big cities like Dhaka and Chittagang, caused as a result of poor drainage systems and constructions blocking water flows.

Too little water in the dry season is another devastating face of water, as critical water shortages damage crop and other economic activities as well as livestock and poultry. In fact, due to non-availability of adequate clean drinking water, people face health hazards.

In the coastal areas and in islands, salinity is a serious problem. People living in those areas suffer from a serious lack of clean drinking water. In these areas, about one-third to 40% of the country’s population lives. Clean water is not available in most of these areas; for that one has to dig 900 or 1,000 feet or even deeper underground. In some places, deep tubewells are set up to provide access to clean drinking water for the people.

Desalination plant is also being established at places. But, the problem is so gigantic that huge numbers of people still keep suffering from a serious lack of clean drinking water and water for household uses.

In relation to salinity ingress, the polders were built in the 1960s. At that time a height of 5 feet was sufficient. But now the sea level is rising and tide is penetrating more and more inside of the country, pushing salinity further and further inland. The height of the polders needs to be raised but this is very

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expensive. Moreover, the damaged/broken embankments and polders should also be repaired. Some years ago, it was estimated that about US$10 billion would be needed to renovate polders and embankments, raising their heights appropriately. This is a huge amount of money which Bangladesh cannot mobilize at a time. What is, therefore, necessary is to prioritize the activities on the basis of proper assessment of improvements that may be created and strategic importance; and take actions on that basis, given the availability of resources.

One particular problem of water management in Bangladesh is that 92% of the annual run-off in Bangladesh comes from upstream in India mostly and only 8% is generated from rainfall within the country. Regional/bilateral cooperation is, therefore, a very important issue in the context of water management in Bangladesh.

During the rainy season, advance information is necessary from upstream for forecasting floods and taking steps to minimize damages and losses. In the dry season, however, water sharing is the issue. But, between India and Bangladesh there is water sharing arrangement only in one river, the Ganges, while a total of 54 rivers come down to Bangladesh from India. Even the Ganges Treaty will expire in another 9 years, i.e. in 2026. Thus, cooperation in transboundary water management remains extremely limited, although Bangladesh has been trying hard to promote cooperation in this field with India and other coriparians.

A good Water Policy was adopted in 1999; a Water Management Plan which was drafted in 2001 and adopted in 2004; and a Water Act was enacted in 2013. These policy and strategy documents provide management guidelines for involving all stakeholders including water users. But, often the implementation is poor. It is noticed that there is also often complacency at the top management level or there is a serious lack of supervision and monitoring, while negligence and

failures to act on time often occur at the operational level. Also, there is corruption that siphons away funds, and the quality of the work done is very poor. Moreover, often maintenance budget is not provided for, so that the structures established are poorly maintained or not maintained at all and crumble quickly.

What are the future challenges of our growing economy?

As I mentioned earlier, Bangladesh has made notable progress in recent years on both economic and social fronts. Now is the time to consolidate the achievements and accelerate and upgrade future socio-economic progress. To achieve that, what needs to be done is to identify and manage the challenges faced. It’s just like an airplane, which stops on the track before taking off to check if everything is in order, Bangladesh, at its stage of development, should check on the challenges that may jeopardize the jump to a higher trajectory of development and accelerated progress along that pathway and resolve them. Let me mention some of the major ones.

Human capability shortages at all levels of society and economy is a serious problem in the context of moving on to an accelerated and sustainable development pathway.

The Government of Bangladesh has adopted a progressive National Education Policy (2010) and a Skill Development Policy (2011). There are also other programmes for skill development.

But, the gaps are huge and much more focused attention and programmes are needed, which must be implemented efficiently and effectively.

Second, corruption is pervasive and this problem is much talked about. Here also much more focused attention is necessary because socio-economic progress is stunted to a significant extent by corruption.

Third, political stability is an important factor behind

INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH DR. QAZI KHOLIQUZZAMAN AHMAD

sustainable and accelerated progress. Since all political parties and others have a stake in the nation’s progress, all must come together to establish a basic political and social stability for the nation to move forward and people to improve their living and social conditions. One other challenge is terrorist activities. In this context, Bangladesh is doing tremendously well in containing terrorism. But, continued vigilance and actions are necessary to stabilize and further improve the situation.

Socio-economic disparity (among economic classes and regions, and gender related) is a serious challenge which is well known and needs stronger actions to be sustainably reduced. Also, for a smooth social progress involving all segments of population, it is essential to address the social menaces such as child marriage, child labor, violence against women, drug addiction, and tobacco consumption.

Can human-centric development be achieved through microcredit?

Microcredit, a small amount of credit, repayable in weekly installments over a year is like a holding an operation. The poor people taking microcredit try to survive but they generally remain afflicted with poverty. Poverty cannot be reduced with microcredit alone, certainly not on a sustainable basis. In fact, for human development, people, particularly the downtrodden, have to be empowered through education, skill training, and healthcare services. They should then be facilitated to find jobs or to establish economic activities of their own. In PKSF, we have

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changed the approach. The PKSF works through its Partner Organizations (POs), which are authorized to provide credit up to Tk. 1,000,000 (ten lakh or one million), taking the actual circumstances of the investors and merit of their proposals into account. The extremely poor cannot use much money. They are provided with amounts that they can use properly and as they progress, the amount of credit is also increased. But, no credit is provided without first providing skill training to the recipients.

They are also facilitated to access appropriate technology and assisted in the marketing of their products. The approach is holistic and the credit provided is called ‘appropriate credit’. The amount needed for the proposed activities of the borrowers, if acceptable, is fully met if it is not more than Tk. 1,000,000. Also, the repayment of a loan is now often monthly, quarterly, or even after longer periods, depending on the types of activities supported. Under this approach, people are turning around quickly and moving on to a beyond poverty sustainable development pathway.

We have observed success in many segments, but which areas should we prioritize?

Now that Bangladesh has embarked on the UN adopted sustainable development pathway, it is essential that everybody is included in the process, and nobody excluded. This essentially require a particular focus on the downtrodden in terms of their capability development and access to employment or other income earning sources. It is also necessary that all stakeholders are involved both in promoting sustainable development and benefiting from it equitably.

Therefore, policy and institutional congruence is essential, keeping the socio-economic inclusion requirement in sharp focus.

In the process, all sectors of the economy also need to be promoted on the basis of their respective potentials. Agriculture still remains the main stay of Bangladesh economy. Although,

given the wide expansion of the service sectors, agriculture contributes about 15% of the GDP, and it still accounts for 47% of total national employment directly and many more indirectly. It also provides food, raw materials and market for the products of other sectors. Agriculture, therefore, has to be given a high priority. Agriculture of course includes crop, fishery, and livestock sub-sectors. The Government of Bangladesh recognizes the importance of agriculture and has been taking steps to promote all the agricultural sub-sectors. More and more research and development activities would be necessary to ensure sustainable development of agriculture, particularly in view of the adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture and loss of agricultural land due to other uses and increasing river erosion and salinity ingress in the wake of climate change.

What about industrialization?

However, sustainable development is not possible on the basis of only agricultural growth. Rather it requires industrialization. In rural areas, micro-enterprises have great potential, which should be exploited through necessary support mechanisms.

The RMG sector is doing well. Also, the pharmaceutical sector is making much headway. Leather industry has significant prospect. The ICT sector has tremendous growth potential. The prospect of jute and jute goods is increasing, given that these are bio-degradable, while the alternative synthetic products are environmentally damaging and climate change inducing. Therefore, these potential sectors need attention. Also, attention should be given to other potential industries. The Government has taken steps to establish Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to promote industrialization. This is making good progress. It is necessary to ensure effective implementation of all the SEZs. The policy planning for all these activities should be people-centric so that the downtrodden are supported to find jobs or set up enterprises.

Lessons Learned

YOU ARE NOT NORMAL Dave McCaughan Co-Founder & Chairman, Marketing Futures

LESSON 1: FORGET WHAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW, YOU ARE NOT NORMAL. GO DO SOME REAL MARKET RESEARCH. hat is right! I don’t mean there is something mentally or physically wrong with you, I mean that if you are reading this article you are not a normal person. Regardless of what your business is, almost certainly the people you are now, or will try in the future, to sell, market, convert to your brand probably are not interested in reading articles about marketing practices. The fact you are makes you “not normal”.

You see normal people just “get on with life”. They may be selling things, marketing things, they may be developing new products or services for others to buy, they may just have a job where they are doing what they are instructed without getting in to problems. They may be the boss of a major company worrying about all aspects of the business. The one thing they all have in common is that you, the reader of this article, are different from them. Because … you are reading this article. You are interested in marketing and its practice and looking for a tip, a lesson as to how to do it better. And, in truth, most people are just not interested in that. So you are not normal.

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WHICH WOULD BE A VALUABLE LESSON ON ITS OWN BUT THINK A BIT MORE ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS: • If you are not normal… how qualified are your views and experiences in deciding how your target group of people will find, judge, accept your marketing efforts?

• If you are not normal… how are you finding out about “normal people” and what they think?

• If you are not normal… are the people you work with or who work with you normal? Or are they also “not normal” because their experience in working with you, in working in your business makes them different from your real target?

OF COURSE YOU MIGHT NOW BE THINKING… THIS IS ALL CONFUSING. SO LET’S CUT TO THE REAL LESSON. If you are marketing you are in the act of “understanding what people want and how your product or service can fulfill their need, and then creating messages and variations on the product that will attract them”. This is a version of the same definition that has guided marketing for generations. Changing in media forms, in availability, in sophistication of people’s behaviors and experiences does not change this.

The key to good marketing is understanding what “real” people want, need, desire, fear and seeing how your product applies to their lives. It is never a case of thinking “well, my friends and I think this” or “well, I asked my wife, mother, girlfriend, secretary what she thought”. Good marketing is ALWAYS about scientific research to understand the target market.

The ONLY way to approach marketing is to undertake proper market research.

Now that can exist in many forms: structured surveys, independent

qualitative discussions by expert moderators, deep analysis of combinations of data drawn from sales, sales experiences and sales trials, it might be done by using artificial intelligence based platforms that analyze what everything on the internet is telling us about a subject. It is never about “in my experience” or “in my opinion”. That is the route of the amateur or egoist, but not the marketer.

Personally, I learnt that lesson years ago when trying to understand the sale of tomatoes. Of course I had been eating, buying, and cooking them for years. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what mattered about tomatoes. Then I met and married an Italian and discovered that there was so much more to tomatoes than I had assumed! And so when I had a client who wanted advice on marketing vegetables I learnt to ask the key question for all marketers - “what do the normal people I am trying to market to know about this”.

LESSONS LEARNED IS A SERIES FROM MARKETING FUTURES WHERE THE CO-FOUNDER SHARES SOME OF HIS EXPERIENCE FROM THREE DECADES OF LEADING THE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS FOR MAJOR INTERNATIONAL BRANDS ACROSS ASIA. For more information regarding Marketing Futures Please email us at: marketingfuturesbd@gmail.com Follow us at: www.facebook.com/marketingfuturesbd Marketing Futures is an Initiative of Ideamax Creatives Limited

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Special Interviews Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore recently organized a Lifestyle Health Seminar on “Empowering You with a Healthy Head Start” in Dhaka. During the seminar, ICE Business Times caught up with Dr. Tan Chong Hiok and Dr. Alvin Hong from Mount Elizabeth Hospital to ask them about better treatment modalities and appropriate medical options. The interviews were taken by Taposh Ghosh and Kazi Raihan Abser.

DR. ALVIN HONG

Senior Consultant, Neurosurgery Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore

Dr. Alvin Hong received his medical training in the United Kingdom. He was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh for General Surgery in 1989, and for Neurosurgery in 1994. His practice includes stereotactic craniotomy for brain lesions, microvascular decompression for trigeminal neuralgia & hemi facial spasm, video-endoscopic thoracic sympathectomies for sweaty palms, and gamma knife radiosurgery. Dr. Hong has subspecialty interests in endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery for pituitary lesions, surgery of the skull base and spinal disorders, as well as Gamma Knife Radiosurgery. In 1979, Dr. Alvin Hong was awarded a scholarship to enter the Medical Science Tripos in Queens’ College, Cambridge University. He is currently the Senior Consultant of Neurosurgery at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore.

Q

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What kind of neurological problems are most common for people around South-East Asian region?

The people of South-East Asia still get the same kind of neurological problems as the rest of the world. The ones in particular that we talk about the most are being overweight, not exercising enough and possibly even smoking. So, if we talk about being overweight, the neurological problems that arise can be problems in the spinal cord, and even chronic neck and back pain due to not having the proper posture and not exercising. Occasionally, they can tap a nerve and it would require a neuro surgeon to decompress that nerve and can even require the expertise of an orthopedic spinal surgeon. In terms of smoking, it can lead to higher possibility of stroke.

Now, there are two types of strokes, one is called ischemic where an artery is blocked usually due to blood clot, thereby cutting supply of oxygen to the brain. The other is called hemorrhagic where a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain burst and spills blood into the brain. When this happens, a portion of the brain becomes deprived of

oxygen and will stop functioning. Diabetes also becomes more prominent with overweight and lack of exercise.

What patients are more susceptible to neurological problems?

Well, the lifestyle really matters here. Smoking, not exercising or not following a proper diet can lead to neurological problems.

Also, as one gets older neurological problems become more common. Basically, a healthy lifestyle can make someone less susceptible to neurological problems and not leading a healthy lifestyle will simply have the adverse effect.

Are there any innovative procedures that have been successful in replacing complicated surgeries?

Nothing has really replaced complicated surgeries but there have been advancements that have made the surgeries safer and also ensured that they would have fewer side effects.

For example, stereotactic navigation can help locate something in the brain even before you make a cut in the skin. Sometimes when you expose the brain the surface

might appear normal, but unlike other parts of the body you can’t go digging into the brain to look for the problem, so you have navigation probes through which with the help of the probe the computer will show your exact position on the brain before you make a cut on the brain.

We can now do endoscopic procedures for pituitary tumors (these are tumors that have risen from a pituitary gland) which hangs from the base of the brains in the back of the nose. We can now do endoscopes through the nose to reach these tumors, which would have been difficult to approach previously.

What would be the ‘must-do’ things, for our neurological health?

As I said earlier, leading a healthy lifestyle is imperative.

Make sure you have a good diet.

God has given us what we have and we just have to make the most of it. So, you need to have a healthy lifestyle, exercise regularly, have a good diet, lose weight if necessary. Also, you need to treat your blood pressure and diabetes if you have them. Alcohol abuse is also bad as it adds weight but most important would probably be to

stop smoking. Smoking gives you cancer. While there is no evidence that smoking gives you primary cancer in the brain but it can give you lung cancer which can eventually spread to the brain.

What would you say is the most challenging aspect of endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery?

Well it is more on the technical side because you’re working through a nostril which is a long small tunnel and the problem is your instruments. What you see at

the end you may not be within reach. Most scopes look at things in a straight line and we can successfully remove tumor from the nose. But as we work with tumors at the bottom of the nose, the soft tumors can be sucked out, however in some patients the tumor the tumor might be hard. If It is hard, in which case it is more difficult to get it out. In some patients the tumor is at a corner and you can always use an angular scope to see it but your instrument may not be able to reach it. So I would say navigating through surgeries with different instrumentation is the biggest challenge.

DR. TAN CHONG HIOK

Senior Consultant, Cardiology Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore

Dr. Tan Chong Hiok is a cardiologist practicing at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Gleneagles Hospital and Parkway East Hospital, Singapore. He has dual accreditation in interventional cardiology and echo cardiology and has spearheaded intervention via the radial approach in Singapore.

He has given countless presentations at various international meetings and conferences. Dr. Tan has extensive experience in performing stenting of the left main artery and chronic total occlusion (CTO), arteries which have been completely blocked for a considerable time. He is one of very few cardiologists in Singapore who has been successful in opening totally blocked arteries using the retrograde approach. He also has a great wealth of experience in performing complex cases with patients who have declined or are unsuitable for bypass surgery.

Q

Which are the most common heart related problems faced in the South-Asian regions?

Simple ones would be high-blood pressure, and next would be coronary artery diseases, which means narrowing of the arteries of the heart. Those are the two diseases, which we commonly witness amongst patients in this region.

What about the patients from Bangladesh? What heart related problems do they report dealing with most?

The two diseases mentioned previously are some of the most problems common amongst Bangladesh patients. Bangladesh has a lot of patients with high blood pressure and blocked arteries. These are very common in this region as many people smoke a lot and does not exercise and eat foods rich in fat and cholesterol, and all these contribute to the heart problems.

Heart diseases are extremely common amongst younger people these days.

What are your thoughts on the issue?

I saw a thirty-four-year-old gentleman, who had already gone through a bypass surgery a

few days back. And it is extremely rare to see people of such ages go through such surgeries. He did not have high cholesterol or high blood-pressure, but unfortunately he had a strong family history of heart diseases. So, this a very strong genetic component of his disease which also means that the patient can do very little to control it.

Other than the genetic factor, these narrow artery diseases occur in the middle ages, between 50 to 60 years of age. I have also seen many 40-year olds with cases of blocked arteries and a lot of them would have had a lot of cardiovascular risk factors; they smoked a lot, some are obese and almost all of them just did not exercise at all and that is a major risk contributor.

If you had one heart related health advice, what would it be?

People talk a lot about diet when it comes to health advice, but it does not take a lot of effort to change diet. But what most people, if not all people, underemphasizes is exercising. A sedentary lifestyle contributes greatly to coronary artery diseases and all sort of morbid diseases, including diabetes. So, exercise is a lot more difficult for people to do. But exercising for half-an-hour, three times a week can make vast differences. Any kind of recreational sport is recommended, especially swimming, as it provides for both resistance and cardiovascular training. If not, light walking or jogging for half-an-hour, three times a week is highly recommended.

Are there any innovative procedures that patients should familiarize themselves with?

An innovative procedure for cardiovascular treatment would be stenting of arteries, which otherwise would have been conducted through bypass surgery. Recent trails have shown that stenting of the left main artery is comparable with bypasses, and can be conducted over a period of three years. Another example can be stenting of chronically occluded arteries, which mean an artery which has been blocked for a really long time; we call it chronic total occlusion or CTO. This is a very special group of arteries which are very difficult to open.

Success rate of opening such arteries is at 50%. But recently the success has gone up to 80%, and these can be performed without surgery or a bypass. But only a few select surgeons can perform this procedure, as a general cardiologist will not have the skills to perform one of these procedures for the time being. www.ibtbd.net

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ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

Development Talk

Climate Change Challenges and its Preparation in Bangladesh

By Dr. Atiq Rahman

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The writer is the Executive Director at the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies and the recipient of the Champion of the Earth in 2008.

B angladesh is one of the countries which is most vulnerable and affected by the impacts of climate change. According to Global Climate Risk Index 2017, Bangladesh ranked 6th among the hardest hit by the impacts of extreme weather events.

Bangladesh is already experiencing the consequences of climate change through sea level rise, cyclones, deeper penetration of saline water, erratic rainfall, floods (intensity and frequency), droughts, river bank erosion, landslides in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and increased deaths due to lightning. These climatic factors and impacts of climate change are affecting people’s food, water, energy, health and livelihood security causing human displacement and migration.

The Bangladesh government has made several strides to address climate change. One of the biggest strengths of Bangladesh for addressing climate change is that there is no political difference between the political parties on the issues and urgency to address climate impacts. In 2005, Bangladesh was the first Least Developed Country to prepare the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA) and was eventually revised in 2009, which documented the urgently needed adaptation actions for Bangladesh. Moreover, Bangladesh is in the process of initiating the National Adaptation Plan (NAP). In 2009, Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) was developed and was published with great international appreciation. BCCSAP has six thematic areas: i) Food security, social protection, and health ii) Comprehensive disaster management iii) Infrastructure iv) Research and knowledge management v) Mitigation and low-carbon development and vi) Capacity building and institutional strengthening.

To reduce the adverse impacts of climate change it is crucial to implement the BCCSAP. However, arranging funds to implement the actions becomes a great challenge.

As the first country, Bangladesh developed the Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) with its own resources to tackle the adverse effects of climate change. Another fund called Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund initiated with funds from development partners. In 2014, Bangladesh also prepared the Climate Fiscal Framework which provides guidelines for planning and managing climate change related finance efficiently. Bangladesh has submitted the First and Second National Communications to UNFCCC. Third National Communication was submitted more recently. The National Communication (NC) is the report developing countries submit to UNFCCC every four years with the ‘information on greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, measures to mitigate and to facilitate adequate adaptation to climate change, and any other information that the Party considers relevant to the achievement of the objective of the Convention’ (UNFCCC).

P H O T O B Y D I N M S H I B LY

TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE POLICIES, STRATEGIES AND ACTION PLANS ARE IN PLACE, BUT THE MAIN CHALLENGE REMAINS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION. www.ibtbd.net

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Bangladesh has shown some noteworthy achievements to combat climate change, and as a result of that in 2015, the Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina received the Champions of the Earth award for her outstanding policy leadership role.

Following the Paris Agreement, Bangladesh submitted the first Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in 2016 which describes Bangladesh’s plan to tackle greenhouse gases (GHG). In July 2017, in a meeting of National Environmental Council chaired by the Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, considering climate change as a top priority issue decision has been taken to redesign the Ministry of Environment and Forests as the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC).

A few key scientists and think tanks from Bangladesh provided the leaderships in UNFCCC and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) from their inception in late eighties and continued to give leadership in adaptation discourse, assessing vulnerability and impacts in Bangladesh and other developing countries, highlighting issues of inequity and need for global climate justice. These thought and action leaders from Bangladesh were duly recognized and four experts were awarded Nobel Peace Prize as Lead Authors of IPCC. Several key scientists and institutions continue to be global leaders in National, Regional and Global discourse, planning science and policy mobilization across the world, more particularly to LDC and poor developing countries. BCAS Executive Director was awarded the highest UN environmental Award “Champion of the Earth in 2008” for his “outstanding and inspirational leadership in the field of environment,” stated the UN Award.

The NGOs in Bangladesh have incorporated climate change in most of their programs and developed extensive training of local government and communities across different ecosystems in the country. Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) have organized ten worldwide International Conference on Community Based Adaptation (CBA) focusing on many initiative and efforts

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by countries to develop climate change adaptation in strategies and actions.

These include wide-ranging efforts in food production, water and land management, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, energy efficiency, education and training, gender and child-sensitive adaptation practices, better ecosystem management and biodiversity production, to mention a few: Bangladesh government with support from its research, NGO and academic committees has developed a leadership role in climate change negotiations, global climate governance, and financial mechanism related discourse.

In the areas of mitigation, Bangladesh has become the world leader in Solar House Systems with 4.5 million households using solar photovoltaic systems. BCAS, Grameen Shakti, BRAC, Rahimafrooz, BCSIR, IDCOL, etc. have contributed towards the dramatic increase in this sector. Improved stove, biogas plants and solar irrigation are also growing in numbers.

Although Bangladesh has made outstanding progress, the people of Bangladesh face constant challenges related to climate change. The development of Bangladesh is hindered due to this problem. According to the Climate Change Vulnerability Index 2015, climate change is impacting Bangladesh’s economy more than any other country by depressing GDP by 0.5%-1% annually. Sea level rise and salinity intrusion are affecting the agricultural sector while increasing water scarcity is causing displacement of people and destroying the coastal and aquatic ecosystem. People of the coastal areas in the south east and the people of the drought-prone areas in the north east are suffering the most from the shortage of fresh drinking water. This water scarcity has made an immense impact on the women and children of the community as they have to travel a long way for collecting drinking water. This has increased their workload, created social tension and girls are dropping out from schools. Sea level rise and salinity intrusion have also intensified the risks of food security and water-borne diseases. Migration will push people towards uncertain livelihood options and create competition and conflict for limited resources. At the grass root level, poor people are coping with the impacts of climate change by

adaptation at their own capacity level.

The local people have limited ability for adaptation.

To address climate change policies, strategies and action plans are in place, but the main challenge remains in the implementation.

Institutionalization of these policies, financial and technical capacity development of the implementing institutions; integration of science, policy and local knowledge; increasing inclusion of the local people within the development projects; a collaboration with the government, NGO, and local people are required for proper implementation of the policies for building resilience of the communities.

Bangladesh achieved a lot of success but the climate change threat is real and severe and we must be prepared for the enormous challenges that come with it.

A FEW OF THE KEY RECOMMENDATIONS CAN BE SUMMARIZED AS FOLLOWS: • Ensure ‘Climate Smart Planning and Development’.

• Consider SDG, Sendai Framework and Paris Agreement in every development plan, programme and projects.

• Arrange local fund for adaptation and mobilize international particularly Green Climate Fund for both adaptation and mitigation.

• Integration of Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Local Adaptation Plan Action (LAPA).

• Prediction and long term projection of climate trend for effective disaster management.

• Special attention for children and women.

• Proper use of resources by integrating science and policy and better monitoring and evaluation.

The BCCSAP has greater detail of the activities that need immediate implementation. The recommendations above provide a summary that shows the need to build institutional and implementation capabilities within the government, local governments, NGOs, civil society, research institutions and think tanks to address the multiplicity of issues under climate change and its challenges.

ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

Development Talk

Making Dhaka More Livable

By Martin Rama

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Dhaka is bursting at its seams as more and more people continue to come in every day to the city to live and work. A culturally vibrant city with a rich history, it has also become one of the most densely populated urban agglomerations in the world.

With such a vertiginous growth, Dhaka now accounts for one-tenth of Bangladesh’s population, one fifth of its GDP, and almost half of its formal employment. Therefore, whatever happens to Dhaka, happens to Bangladesh. If one has to think about the growth of Bangladesh, and Dhaka does not succeed, then it will be challenging for Bangladesh to do so.

Unfortunately, some of the most significant benefits from urbanization are missed out to congestion and low livability. In the last ten years, average traffic speed has declined from 21 km/hour to 7 km/hour, with people spending an average of 2.4 hours a day in traffic.

Congestion takes up 3.2 million working hours each day and costs the economy billions of dollars every year. The result is a massive income potential being lost for the city and the country.

How can these challenges be addressed? Last month, an international conference was held in Dhaka to discuss the preliminary findings of a new World Bank draft report, “Towards Great Dhaka: A New Urban Development Paradigm Eastward.” Participants agreed that the city’s urban growth pattern has been messy and uneven, and discussed development options for Dhaka towards 2035 – when its population is expected to have doubled to 35 million people.

At the conference, there was a consensus that Dhaka is now at a critical juncture. Widening streets and adding public spaces are important priorities, but they are costly in already crowded areas.

People seem to be arriving in Dhaka faster than the city can develop the infrastructure to accommodate them.

Between 1995 and 2005, road

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surface in Dhaka increased by 5%, while population grew by 50% and traffic by 134%.

The real transformational change would be to add a vast expanse of high-quality urban land to the existing city and to use this additional space to decongest the older parts of town.

Just across the areas of Progoti Soroni and close to Gulshan, lies the most largely rural East Dhaka area.

Participants emphasized that with proper planning, this eastward development has the potential of making Dhaka a highly productive urban agglomeration, comparable to other megacities in the world.

THE SHANGHAI EXAMPLE

Other cities in the world have gone through such transformations. For example, only 25 years ago the now vibrant East Shanghai (Pudong) area was roughly as rural as East Dhaka is today. Under national leadership, Shanghai articulated a vision to develop Pudong in a radically different way, putting in place modern infrastructure, ensuring access to services, and providing incentives to attract high value-added activities. As a result, the city grew from 6 million to over 24 million. Productivity surged, and livability improved dramatically, making Shanghai a truly global city.

At the international conference, Zhao Qizheng, former Vice Mayor of Shanghai in charge of the Pudong transformation said through a video message: “Our objective was to enable Shanghai to play a global role and invigorate Shanghai to serve the rest of China in communication with the world.” He added, “At that time we could not build high rises… our real estate developers could only build houses to sell and no experience in housing finance and designing. But talent grows in the process of reform and opening up.”

The experience of Shanghai and other cities shows that success requires a clear strategy. One that is embraced by government agencies, private investors and development organizations, and supported by careful planning and tight implementation.

WITH SUCH A VERTIGINOUS GROWTH, DHAKA NOW ACCOUNTS FOR ONE-TENTH OF BANGLADESH’S POPULATION, ONE FIFTH OF ITS GDP, AND ALMOST HALF OF ITS FORMAL EMPLOYMENT. THEREFORE, WHATEVER HAPPENS TO DHAKA, HAPPENS TO BANGLADESH.

WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE CITIZENS OF DHAKA

Ministries responsible for Dhaka’s development and global experts shared their experience in managing urban development. Anthony Venables, Professor of Economics, Oxford University, presented rigorous simulations of the city’s development under various scenarios.

At one end was “business as usual.” At the other, the strategic development of East Dhaka, which would include building the eastern embankment and laying out a modern transport infrastructure before the area densifies. Reducing flooding would make land available for urban development, improving connectivity would increase the investment potential. And the gains would be amplified if the cost of doing business in the new area was reduced, encourage firms and people to move in for greater economic opportunities.

Building East Dhaka correctly now will cost much less than having to retrofit it in the future for increased livability and the reduced risk of natural disasters. But panelists also emphasized that a strong vision and coordination across agencies would be needed for this ambitious scenario to materialize.

THE AUTHOR IS THE CHIEF ECONOMIST FOR SOUTH ASIA REGION, THE WORLD BANK.

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ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

Development Talk

Connection and Connectedness WHAT THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY ARE NOT

By DR. SELIM JAHAN

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ast year, when I launched the 2016 Human Development Report on Human Development for Everyone in various capitals of the world, I made a distinction between connection and connectedness. I maintained in my interventions that connection among people has increased, thanks to the digital revolution and social media, but human connectedness has declined.

Needless to say, in a world of globalization and digital revolution, it raised lots of eyebrows,

The writer is the Director of the Human Development Repor t Of fice at the United Nations Development Programme.

particularly among the media and younger generations. How could I say that – people asked? With the spread of information and communication technology and that of social media at breakneck speed, isn’t the world more connected than ever? Let us look at numbers, they argued.

Today, we have more than 7 billion mobile subscriptions, more than 2 billion smartphone users, and more than 3 billion people who are connected to the internet. On worldwide, there are over 2 billion monthly active Facebook users for June 2017 and more than 325 million active twitter users. Has the world seen such surge of people’s connection throughout the entirety human history? So what do I have to say?

I was flooded with questions from the media in different capitals, was asked to clarify in interviews on newspapers, television, radio and so on, requested to defend what I argued for. Even after the presentations of the Report, many participants asked questions on this issue and wanted to know what I meant by those words? Did I use the words rhetorically or did I imply any real difference? As I said earlier, and I would like to reiterate the point once again, that there are differences between connection and connectedness. And the differences are neither literary nor rhetorical; rather they are real.

There is no doubt that in the

I MAINTAINED IN MY INTERVENTIONS THAT CONNECTION AMONG PEOPLE HAS INCREASED, THANKS TO THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION AND SOCIAL MEDIA, BUT HUMAN CONNECTEDNESS HAS DECLINED.

present world, the connection among people has increased significantly and that such progress is enviable. In today’s world, people can connect in seconds with other people on the other side of the world; they can write to them using different digital means, they can share news, information, photos, videos, etc. They can also exchange personal information as to what they are doing, where their friends are, is there something interesting happening. Just visit Facebook at any point in time, and you will see what I mean. Such a public domain has absolutely increased connection.

Similarly, people also interact on economic, social, political or cultural issues. You write something on some topics and immediately you will see that people have provided feedbacks on those, either agreeing with you or disagreeing and sometimes, bringing in new perspectives, information, and views. And with all these begin exciting and stimulating debates, dialogues, and discourses. Most importantly, social media has mobilized

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people, brought together their voices, have facilitated social movements. Just think of the Arab Spring a few years ago. Twitter has emerged as even a sorter and short-cut instrument for people’s interaction, and with tweets and retweets, the multiplier effects of social interaction have become phenomenal.

But the fundamental question is are these substitutes for, what I call, human connectedness. In my view, connectedness is not mere connection in terms of social media or digital instruments, but it is more than that. In connection, sometimes people remain distant, even anonymous, you may see his or her picture, but in real terms, you may not know the person. In earlier times, when we used to write letters, we used to know the hand-writing of a person, when you talk to a person over the phone, you recognize his or her voice. But now with Facebook and Twitter, these are becoming extinct.

Furthermore, such connections sometimes appear to be quite vague, mechanical, and regrettably unbelievable.

Sometimes people connect with others with a ‘like’ or a ‘react’ without meaning anything or respond inappropriately. For example, I have seen people responding with a ‘like’ icon on a post where others have indicated that they have lost their parents.

Such connections are no connections at all, and only represent insensitiveness of people.

But human connectedness is beyond all these. Connectedness requires the physical presence of someone else, face-to-face talks, making eye contact, having physical contact. Human touch is essential for human connectedness, and so is the physical presence. With all these, we reach the hearts of others, make bonds, and make real connections. It is one thing to send an e-mail to a colleague but is entirely different to go to his

room, stand at his or her door and ask him or her whether he or she is free and would like to join for lunch. Is it more time-consuming?

Maybe. But time is a critical element for human connectedness, because, in the ultimate analysis, it is time, which one can give to other and that builds human connectedness.

In the modern world, even living in the same room, people may have connections with the rest of the world, but they may not necessarily be connected with each other. Let us observe what a typical household and see what they do in the evening. The father may be watching the television and getting all the information from the rest of the world; the mother may be talking to one of her friends on a mobile phone; the son may be chatting with his friends on Facebook, and the daughter may be tweeting to her Twitter followers. Everyone in this family has a connection with the rest of the world, but they are not connected with each other. Having family dinners is slowly becoming a forgotten social exercise.

In the ultimate analysis, the connection is a necessary condition, but not a sufficient condition for human connectedness. The connection may facilitate connectedness, but it is not a substitute for connectedness. Furthermore, one has to distinguish between what is necessary and what is important. The connection is necessary, and connectedness is important. Let me conclude by using a metaphor. Connectedness is a house and connection is the door. It would be wrong to mistake the door to be the house. But it would be equally wrong to stop at the door and not to enter the house.

ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

Development Talk

THE DAUNTING TASK OF MOBILIZING RESOURCES

By Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen

In 2015, the global leaders in their vision of building a hunger and poverty free world adopted four UN resolutions, which were (1) Sendai Disaster-Risk Reduction, (2) Accra Agreement on Financing for Development, (3) Sustainable Development Goals and the (4) Paris Agreement. These goals and targets are not only inspirational but also achievable and would require a massive mobilization of resources and technology transfer. To have a pro-people, pro-planet, a more inclusive, peaceful and sustainable world for all where 'no one is left behind,' it is imperative to have a rock-solid partnership and political commitment. Also, building a healthy relationship with governments, NGOs, the private sector, business entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and academics is also of utmost importance. Unlike

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The writer is a Professor Emeritus, and former Bangladesh Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN.

MDGs, these goals are for all countries of the world starting from the rich to the poor.

The Development Partners (DPs) agreed to provide 0.7% of their Gross National Income (GNI) as Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2002. Unfortunately, only six countries were able to contribute while others were left far behind. However, the total ODA at the moment is around $156 billion annually (average of last ten years) allocated to the Developing countries (DCs) which is only 3.1% of the funding requirement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As per various estimates, it will require $5 to $11 trillion annually to achieve the SDGs. The contribution of DPs to 48 Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is around $38-$42 billion which is less than 1% of the requirement. However, major events around the world, mainly the election result in the USA along with Brexit in the UK, have reduced the possibilities of the DPs providing more funds for the SDGs. Apart from this, other ways of financing the SDGs like carbon pricing, tax on billionaires, and a reallocation of funds from defense expenditures could easily provide a couple of trillions of dollars for the initiative. Besides, a percentage investment of the global $23 trillion bank savings, a proportion of $400 trillion private sector resources and a

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redistribution of wealth from the 85 individuals who own half of the global wealth, could make up for the needed funding. Recently, a $100 billion BRICS and a $40 billion AIIB have been set up and are acting as the newest additions to mobilizing funds in the southern countries.

Moreover, transfer of the cost effective and easily adaptable southern technologies could also play a significant role in achieving SDGs. The trade and investment within the southern countries have dramatically increased in recent years vis-a-vis others, which makes it a perfect time to explore and get the most out of their untapped potential. Therefore, to explore this potential, Bangladesh has been suggested to form a ‘Forum of Development and Finance

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Ministers of the Southern Countries’ in the context of SDGs. In March 2019, the leaders of the Southern countries will celebrate their 40th anniversary in Buenos Aires, and Bangladesh with the support of NAM may take the lead to establish such a Forum of SSCs to discuss, debate, and explore the critical issues of the South.

Moreover, because of the uncertainty of the largest economy in the world (US), other economies including UK and EU may also undergo a spill-over effect. The rising protectionism may force many advanced countries to divert away from their historical commitments of contributing to the SDGs and financing the DCs. In contrast, the economies of the emerging countries like China and the

BRICS are comparatively in a better state than the others. Given the scenario, it may be prudent and realistic to promote a South-South cooperation. However, a South-South cooperation can only be complementary to a North-South triangular cooperation and not a substitute. This collaboration may also bring about a 'win-win' situation for all, as far as the cases of the CAR and Sierra Leone are considered.

To meet Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Vision 2021 and Vision 2041 of achieving SDGs, Bangladesh is estimated to collect an amount of Tk 4,98,90,000 crore ($6.23 trillion) that will be translated into constructing 1,800 Padma bridges. The government of Bangladesh (GOB) proposes to realize 85% of this fund domestically while 10% will come from abroad. It also postulates that 42% of it will come from the private sector which means the GOB has to spend around ($5.3b) each year till 2030. Most of the resources have to be managed domestically through innovative financing to achieve the SDGs, which is a daunting task indeed. However, to be on the brighter side, Bangladesh has taken the challenge seriously and has formed a powerful new position in the Prime Minister’s Office, titled ‘Coordinator of the SDGs Affairs.' Also, it established a 16-member 'SDGs Implementation and Monitoring Committee' consisting of senior bureaucrats representing all relevant departments or ministries. It also assigned 40 Ministries and Divisions, plus another 61 Ministries, Divisions and other Independent Institutions to do the necessary mapping regarding 17 SDGs, 169 targets and of course, 230 indicators.

The massive resource requirement stands as a major hurdle for many nations who have targeted to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Therefore, it may be recommended for the UN Secretary General to arrange a Summit of the Heads of the States and Governments and the signatories of the four resolutions to debate the 'means of implementation' of the SDGs at the earliest. Otherwise, we are afraid that the lofty ideals and aspirations of the global leadership and people may remain an 'unfinished agenda' even beyond 2030.

ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

Development Talk

The City is the Challenge

By DR. Kazi Khaleed Ashraf A city is not easy to define. All cities are alike, and yet each city is different. A good place to understand a city is its meaning in various languages, revealing something of the originary condition of the site. Of the Bangla terms nagara and shahar, the former of Sanskrit and the latter of Persian origin, nagara relates to an area of buildings and structures and also describes what is clever and cunning. The nagarika, for example, is someone adept in the pursuit of kama and artha.

Suffixes in names like pur, as in Gazipur, refers to a fort, while ganj to a market.

Dhaka city has transformed tremendously in the last twenty years or so, sporting sparkly buildings, expensive automobiles, and a greater sense of the urban hustle and bustle, and yet the city continues to be low in the ranking of livability and civic well-being. A more conventional imagery of the city – that newspapers flash on a daily basis is that of environmental chaos where sewage bubbles, fumes spew, vehicles run amok, parks vanish, and lives perish wantonly.

We don't need a member or consultant of some international agency to tell us how messy things are; if we had a little self-respect, we should be able to face the fracas ourselves.

The writer is the Director-General of Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements.

None of these terms suggest the idea of a civic polity, the ethical and spiritual basis of collective living in a city. In the grand sweep of our agricultural rhetoric, our profound and ancient sentiment for the soil, we continue to see the city as a curse when in fact it is now as essential and crucial as the paddy-field.

Bangladesh is still talked about as a rural-agricultural civilization with some bursts of industrial islands, with much of the political and institutional programs embracing an ideology of a perfected “gram bangla.�

But in the last twenty years or so, something dramatic and surreptitious has happened: an

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urban revolution has taken hold of the country. More and more people now live in cities, and if they do not, they participate in the overall dynamic, making cities and towns no longer minor parties in the national framework but active sites of human habitations, relationships, and economies. If cities are the battlegrounds of our anxieties, they are also the decisive places of our imagination and capabilities. As the Brazilian urbanist Jaime Lerner declared, cities are not problems, they are solutions, and therefore they require a more imaginative and critical attention. And that is why we feel anxious that we have not yet been able to draw up a proper urban agenda for the country.

Dhaka is the critical site where the boldest plan for a new urban future ought to occur. However, the city has no cohesive plan and proceeds only with bursts of ad-hoc decisions, usually taken by bureaucrats, technocrats, and professionals with little clue about the life in a city, and indeed no abiding love for the city. The result is the same as elsewhere, where the city is left to dysfunctional treatments: remorseless development, heightening social inequality, increasing community breakdowns, wretched transport, and road systems, blatant occupation of land and waterways, ravaging of open spaces, and, in short, lack of models of how people should come and live together.

In the absence of any solid tradition of urban civic culture, Dhaka city remains the sole model of urbanism in the country. It is ironic that every nook and corner in the mofussil wishes to mimic the characteristics of a dysfunctional Dhaka. It is in that sense, the future landscape of the country depends on what we make of Dhaka city.

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AND THAT PRECISELY IS THE CHALLENGE FOR BANGLADESH: HOW TO MAKE OUR CITIES AND SETTLEMENTS LIVABLE WITHOUT ECOLOGICAL DAMAGE? We list here key criteria for thinking about a truly urban and livable Dhaka: 1) A “good� city does not happen on its own; it is envisioned, planned professionally, and then implemented with meticulous dedication. To bring real and practical changes to Dhaka, we need a political will, bold imagination, and a serious commitment to carry that out.

2) Dhaka requires a radical restructuring of its transportation network. It needs more roads and more ways of getting around. It is incredible that the capital city of a nation with a population of nearly 16 million has only two premier roads (Airport Road and Mirpur Road) running north and south along the axis of the city's development, with little connection along the east-west. We should see the active development of a water bus system circling the city following the natural course of rivers framing Dhaka. We need a mass transit railway (overhead or surface) that both circles and intersects the city, taking people off the clogged inner streets and into a rapid system of movement. Finally, to make all these work Dhaka needs a walkable network.

3) Considering that buildings alone do not make a city, but buildings and spaces in a well-knit fabric; urban areas remain the most precious ingredients of a city. Such spaces include vast areas of assembly, parks, gardens, lakefronts, riverfronts, etc.

Dhaka one time had an enviable resource of such spaces; now they have either vanished or are vanishing in an avalanche of greed and manipulation. Dhaka could be a garden city where the rush to build does not stop the civilized and healthy need for trees and vegetation at every available space of the city.

4) The merciless choking and polluting of Buriganga have depleted Dhaka of one of its most treasured assets. A radical overhaul of Buriganga River along with its banks and the various wetlands is crucial for an economic, transport and cultural revitalization of Dhaka. The river can again become a major lifeblood, and the riverfront a much more organized area providing renewed recreational, civic, economic, and transport facilities. This applies to all the other rivers around the city. And only then it may be possible discover again that Dhaka is an aquatic city, like an island framed by three rivers with canals crisscrossing it.

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5) Housing is the material and social fabric of the city, and yet housing is Dhaka's greatest failure. Despite what seems like a developer’s boomtown, Dhaka has not been able to create suitable residential models for the many different communities that inhabit it other than the individual plot with the independent bungalow-style house or the boxed-up apartment building. There simply has been no vision of how we should live as a group in new urban conditions.

The “plot” and “flat” do not add up to a wholesome urban ensemble, nor create any fabric of a residential complex, a cohesive community with an admirable and collective quality of life. While the thoughtless strategy of making new housing areas by plotting and subdividing land should be ceased immediately, alternative imaginative models of mass housing with greater density and higher quality of urbanity should be explored.

6) A big priority is to conceive the future physical extent of Dhaka in relationship to social, developmental, environmental, and ecological conditions of a wider net. A plan for the capital city needs to be premised by strategies for an overall urban and physical development of the city itself and its larger region; we call it the Dhaka Nexus area. With Dhaka itself, once the footprint of the expanded city is identified, the perimeter should be carefully delineated so as not to affect more agricultural areas and wetlands.

A careful balance should be established between Dhaka's urbanization needs and ecological obligations. Once that is done, it should be maintained with rigorous vigilance. At the same time, Dhaka needs a selective decentralization with pressures from the existing city spread out. This can be done by creating new nodal and satellite towns within the administrative reach of Dhaka but also expanding to regional towns as Manikganj, Munshiganj, and Gazipur.

The first circle of areas could be developed as nodal townships within Dhaka, and the second ring of existing towns could be energized to create a network of satellite towns. The new nodal towns should be high-density structures with selective commerce, institutions and government offices dispersed uniformly. Such reorganization depends on a new

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network of movements that connect the nodes, and this is where the much talked about circular water or rail route may come in.

If the above agenda seems like a pipedream, we can cite many examples from around the world in which the destiny of a troubled city has been turned around. When architect Jaime Lerner took over the Brazilian city of Curitiba as its mayor in the 1970s and 80s, it was afflicted by all the familiar “third world” ills.

Lerner changed the living conditions of the city, its ailing economy, the poor transportation system, and the polluted environment, making him quite rightly an urban wizard. Lerner went on to become the governor of the region of Parana, was honored to be the chair of the International Union of Architects, and now goes around cities in the north and south advising on their future. The mayor of Istanbul in the 1980s bulldozed all the industries and warehouses that clogged up the banks of the Bosphorus polluting it and disrupting the city’s historic relationship with water. After the recovery of the open spaces, the city organized design competitions to receive ideas from international architects to envision a future for those areas instead of going ahead with a half-baked and profit motivated plan. Delhi, Mumbai, and even Karachi, no matter how dire the urban circumstances sometimes seem there, have produced many successful mixed, high-density housing models for different communities of the city.

The city of Bangkok after years of suffocating smog and traffic is slowly progressing towards a more organized and humane environment after it invited Gary Hack, the urban designer of New York’s World Trade Center area, to initiate a new and bold plan.

As mayor of Seoul in South Korea, Lee Myung-bak undertook radical urban renovations by cleaning and reviving a historic canal (thus producing a significant recreational space and an active ecosystem), creating the Seoul Forest in the city (in a record time of one year with 400,000 trees), and taking down flyovers in order to create a non-disruptive urban landscape.

The interesting thing is that Myung-bak himself was involved in the construction of the elevated roadways before he became the mayor

which he then dismantled to create the new canal. Later, as president of the country, he continued his civic building projects towards more ambitious and bolder lines such as the Seoul-Busan cross-city canal and the creation of the “city of science” with international schools and state of the art medical facilities. On being questioned about his big, relentless projects, Myung-bak replies, “It’s a simple fact that many cities around the world were benefited by making the best use of their rivers and seas.”

Dhaka can write a new chapter by creating an Urban Task Force. With a government initiative, the task force may be empowered with proper authority and manned by right expertise to prepare short-term and long-term goals for the transformation of the city. If needed, people like Jaime Lerner or Gary Hack, who have experience in transforming cities, may be invited as advisors. The Urban Task Force could take a stance on preparing an intelligent plan for Dhaka as well as urban strategies for the whole country, that is, a coordinated and managed development of a network of primary cities and smaller towns with precise ideas about the constitution of each city keeping in mind interlinked issues of housing, transport, public spaces, wetlands and waterways, and their regional impacts. If there is a political will, there will be a way out of perdition.

It is incredible that the capital city of a nation with a population of nearly 16 million has only two premier roads (Airport Road and Mirpur Road) running north and south along the axis of the city's development, with little connection along the east-west.”

Photo Story

The Saga of Climate Change TEXT BY IRAD MUSTAFA PHOTOGRAPHS BY DIN M SHIBLY

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THE RISING WATER LEVEL CAN BE OBSERVED AS IT CRASHES AGAINST THE REMAINS OF THE DAMAGED EMBANKMENT.

In some places, the impact of climate change is more apparent than in others.

Bangladesh is one of the largest deltas in the world which makes it highly susceptible to natural disasters.

The country’s physical, social, as well as, economic conditions make it even more prone to these circumstances which occur on a scale that involves unprecedented human tragedy.

Nearly one-quarter of Bangladesh is less than seven feet above sea level; two-thirds of the country is less than 15 feet above sea level. Most Bangladeshis live along coastal areas where alluvial delta soils provide some of the best farmland in the country.

One of the many plights of climate change is that sea level can rise. It can happen due to the oceans warming up due to increasing global temperatures or because of melting ice which then adds water to the sea.

Bangladesh has been suffering from both. With the temperature of the Bay of Bengal significantly increasing, scientists believe that Bangladesh has suffered from some of the fastest recorded

TAKING A VISUAL TRIP THROUGH ONE OF THE SOUTHERN COASTAL REGIONS IN BANGLADESH TO UNDERSTAND HOW CLIMATE CHANGE HAS RAVAGED LIVES OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS.

sea level rises in the world. At the same time, melting of glaciers in the Himalayas has swollen the rivers that flow into Bangladesh from Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and India.

According to the government’s 2009 Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, “in an ‘average’ year, approximately one-quarter of the country is inundated.” Every four to five years, “there is a severe flooding that may cover over 60% of the country.” Rapid erosion of coastal areas has already inundated dozens of islands in the Bay. For

example, Sandwip Island, near Chittagong, has lost 90% of its original 23-square-miles in the last two decades.

Climate change in Bangladesh has started what may become the largest mass migration in human history. Riverbank erosion, in recent years, has annually displaced from 50,000 to 200,000 people. It is also reported that a three-foot rise in sea level would submerge almost 20% of the entire country and displace more than 30 million people.

With all this in mind, ICE Business Times time travels through the Dhalghata Union in the South East of the country.

Just to give you an idea regarding its location, Dhalghata lies on the South Eastern coast of Bangladesh, but towards the North of Cox’s Bazar. As mentioned before, the rapid erosion in these coastal areas leads to large masses of people being displaced. We travel to the villages of Saraitala and Bonjamiragona to observe how climate change can alter lives and landscapes over the six year period from 2011www.ibtbd.net to 2017.

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We first see Saraitala in 2011 during the month of Ramadan. On the night before Eid al-Fitr, the full spring high tide (known locally as bhorakatal) destroyed the government made embankment sweeping away most of the village. The neighboring village, Bonjamiragona and its accompanying wards are also caught in the flood. Most of the villagers are then forced to migrate to higher lands in the union to escape the rising waters.

13 SEPT.

2011

SARAITALA’S GOVERNMENT PRIMARY SCHOOL

SOME FAMILIES USED TO TAKE SHELTER WITHIN THE SCHOOL WALLS AS THEY HAD ALREADY LOST THEIR HOMES TO PREVIOUS FLOODS. THESE FAMILIES TOOK TO THE SCHOOL ROOF DURING DAY TIME SO THE CLASSES COULD COMMENCE UNINTERRUPTED.

A STUDENT OF THE SCHOOL STARING OUT AT THE ENDLESS OCEAN WHICH THREATENS TO CONSUME THE SCHOOL AND THE VILLAGE

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Ultimately the sea level rose above that of the village ground level during the high tide, forcing inhabitants to leave behind the lives they had built there.

A VIEW OF THE VILLAGE WHILE PARTIALLY FLOODED DURING THE MONSOON SEASON

THE VIEW OF THE VILLAGE FROM THE SCHOOL

CHILDREN PARTAKING IN SCHOOL TIME ACTIVITIES AT THE GOVERNMENT SCHOOL

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4 MAY

2015

ONE OF THE FEW SURVIVORS IN THE AREA, A FORMER CRAB FARM OWNER, REDUCED TO RANDOM FISHING TO MAKE A LIVING. LOSING HIS FARM HAS MEANT THAT HIS ONCE STABLE INCOME FLOW IS LOST.

THE ABANDONED BONJAMIRAGONA, MOSTLY SUBMERGED DUE TO THE RISING SEA LEVELS.

ONE OF THE FEW REMAINING HOUSES IN BONJAMIRAGONA OWNED BY MR. ZAFAR ALAM WHO WAS IN HIS 60S AT THE TIME.

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Around 4 years onwards, as we travel towards Saraitala again, we first visit its neighboring ward, Bonjamiragona, to observe the toll time has taken on the small village.

CHILDREN FROM THE BONJAMIRAGONA MAKE A 4 KILOMETER WALK EVERY DAY TO A HIGH SCHOOL TO THE NORTH OF THE AREA AS NO SCHOOLS CAN BE CONSTRUCTED ON THE BARREN LANDS NEAR THEIR HOMES.

THE STATE OF THE BARREN LAND IN THE VILLAGE.

BACK IN SARAITALA, THE VILLAGE LIES COMPLETELY SUBMERGED AND ABANDONED. WE CAN SEE THE PRIMARY SCHOOL WITH A FEW OF ITS FLOORS ENTIRELY UNDERWATER. THE BUILDING CAN ONLY BE REACHED BY BOAT NOW DURING LOW TIDES.

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22 MAY

2017

BACK IN SARAITALA, THE DEPTH OF THE WATER HAS RISEN ALLOWING LARGER BOATS TO TRAVERSE THROUGH THE AREA. THE SCHOOL STILL LIES PARTIALLY SUBMERGED AND INACCESSIBLE.

ZAFAR ALAM’S PLOT OF LAND TWO YEARS LATER. AS THE LAND LOST ITS ARABILITY, HE ALSO HAD TO MIGRATE WITH HIS FAMILY OUT OF THE AREA.

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Post-2015, the locals in Dhalghata raised around Tk 18 lac to build their own embankments against the rising waters. This was used primarily to set up salt farms in Bonjamiragona. The construction of this new dike, along with the salt farms, has meant that slowly families have started to migrate back to their former homes in the area.

ONE OF THE LOCALS WORKING ON THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED SALT FARMS IN BONJAMIRAGONA.

In this area, salt farming occurs from October to March due to the lack of rain and the lower pressure from the tides. The families can earn more from the salt farms, so the population grows during this time frame. However, from March to September, they once again have to migrate elsewhere as their income from the salt farms dwindles. These are the people climate refugees who don’t have enough money to relocate permanently. They come back when they can earn money from salt cultivation then leave again when the rains increase and the water levels rise.

SOME FAMILIES SET UP TEMPORARY HOMES RIGHT ON THE EMBANKMENT REMNANTS. THEY ARE HIGHLY VULNERABLE TO THE HIGH TIDES AND HAVE TO BE PREPARED TO MOVE IF THE WATER LEVELS THREATEN TO OVERRUN THEIR HOMES.

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The photographer has been conducting this documentary style of work all across Bangladesh over the last 14 years. He visits various locations in the country and documents the areas over a few years so that the changes they go through can be observed. His work in the landscape genre, as seen in this photo story, depicts not only the alterations in the landscape, but also the changes in the lives of its inhabitants.

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T

hese are the conditions these people are forced into.

Uprooted from their homes, they move back and forth between these semi-barren areas, coping with the frustrating reality that they cannot settle anywhere permanently. As the sea levels rise slowly with the passage of time, whatever scope of recovering these lands is also slowly being drowned in the process.

Bearing this in mind, the government has to take a

Sources: i. Global Economic Symposium ii. Scientific American iii. NCDO iv. NY Times

stance and allocate resources or establish programs for these displaced families and climate refugees so they can start new lives in safer territories. Another way to help them would be to build upgraded embankments like the ones on the Marine Drive in Cox’s Bazar. Considering the exasperating lives they currently lead, these steps can hopefully reassure inhabitants in these coastal regions that the lives they are trying to build won’t be washed away by these rising tides for much longer.

This unfolding calamity also demands a response from the international community.

Wealthier nations generate most of the greenhouse gases that are harming countries like Bangladesh, creating climate refugees. If these countries are unwilling to absorb these refugees, there is a moral imperative for them to help. They must join in with the Bangladesh government and aid them in the construction of roads, water supply systems, housing and other infrastructure so these climate refugees can remain and thrive in their own country.

Interview

The future lies with the youth of Bangladesh TASLIM AHMED

Chief Executive Officer, Unitrend Limited

Taslim Ahmed is the Chief Executive Officer of Unitrend Limited. During the 90s he started his career in advertising and marketing communications. He spent around half a decade with Unitrend Ltd. - McCann Erickson Worldwide in late 90’s and early 2000. He worked in the capacity of a Brand Custodian for Global Brands from Nestle, Berger, Holderbank, Telecom Malaysia and so on. He has experienced the launch of many different global brands in Bangladesh. Taslim is also the Brand Consultant to Institute of Chartered Accountants Bangladesh (ICAB) and also involved as the Judge & Execution-in-Charge of the Youth Leadership Programs of Channel I, The Future Leaders Program and The Youth Leaders Program.

Q

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Can you tell us a little bit about Future Biz?

Future Biz is a joint brand partnership between Unitrend and ICE Business Times (IBT) as we share a common vision of paying back to the business society at large in Bangladesh. Future Biz is about the future businesses and the future corporate and business professionals. Keeping this in mind Unitrend launched the Future Minds initiative a few months back. This project predominantly works with fresh graduates by providing them with opportunities such as internships, give them real life exposures and ideas about

brand management and about corporate life. Since this project was such a hit, we decided to take this further by partnering with a publishing house to reach out to a larger audience. In other words, Future Biz is a continuation as well as a logical progression of Future Minds.

Our idea is to reach out to the future generations to not only inspire them with stories of the great business leaders of Bangladesh but also to give them an insight on the know-hows of the businesses. The idea is to add to the entire value chain by allowing these budding entrepreneurs and professionals to do their jobs better. IBT plays an

I N T E R V I E W TA S L I M A H M E D

them in better managing their own selves & businesses.

Where do you see Future Biz in the next five years?

Primarily, we would want to reach out with the content through IBT which will be about business strategies and acquaintances to groom people for the future. The content will surely inspire them.

We are hoping that in the future this platform will stretch. We would like to include knowledge sharing sessions where cross-industry leaders shall be invited to share their experiences.

Icons of the present day Bangladeshi business scene sharing their lives with the youth while also knowing about the success story about brands such as Pran, Walton etc. is what a typical session would look like.

After a while, we will be able to garner feedbacks from the participants. Perhaps, we can also narrow down our sessions to certain sectors. Such as a session only for Chartered Accountants, CFOs, CEOS, or on areas like Corporate Social Responsibility and so on.

What inspired you to come up with such a project?

essential role in disseminating information in the business community hence it made perfect sense to partner with them for the success of the project.

Why is a program like Future Biz necessary for the Bangladeshi market?

The future lies with the youth of Bangladesh. I believe that the 16 Crore or more people are the biggest strength of our country. We must ensure that we

are providing them with the right skill sets and opportunities too so that they can take the country forward and of course in the right direction.

We hope that a synergy between Unitrend and IBT will provide numerous benefits to corporate businesses and professionals of Bangladesh. Since the magazines are sent to different corporate houses and young professionals, we will be able to reach our target audience and try to guide

While still a visiting professor in the private universities in Dhaka, I would often find students being told about international case studies and business leaders. But I believe that highlighting local leaders is more relatable for our students. This creates a knowledge gap. In recent times, I have noticed another difference working with young professionals who seem unacquainted with the local factors. Our local media in many cases cannot manage to cover the success stories of our business giants, and thus I felt that we need to highlight these and thus the idea of Future Biz was born.

Interview

MOHAMMED ABDUR RAHIM Vice Chairman DBL Group

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Q

I N T E R V I E W MOHAMMED ABDUR RAHIM

It is very rare to find businesses that have gone for the sustainable business model in our country, compared to the ones who use the quick business model.

DBL Group has been using this model from the very beginning.

What motivated you to follow in this direction?

The benefits of our workers were considered even when we first built our factory twenty six years back, which was long before the compliance issues were raised in the country.

With a vision to sustain and grow as a diversified global conglomerate, DBL Group started its journey in 1991 as a single company and has now become a conglomerate of 22 concerns.

Mohammed Abdur Rahim is the Vice Chairman of DBL Group.

Dulal, the eldest amongst the brothers, was a martyr in the 1971 Liberation War. The company named after him has now made its name as a renowned sustainable business group in Bangladesh.The four brothers of Dulal are now running the business which has an annual turnover of $365 million and has a workforce of around 30,000 employees. The business has also attained various accolades for its ventures, business ethics, Sustainability, human rights and HR Practices.

Rahim obtained his Master Degree in Management and began his professional career as a banker. His vast working experience in the bank greatly helped him to gain insight into the commercial and financial aspects of businesses. His dynamic leadership also helped the group to pay off all their liabilities and term loans way ahead of schedule. He is currently serving as a Director of BGMEA (Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association) and has also served as a Director of BTMA (Bangladesh Textile Mills Association).

A lot of businesses enter the market with the vision of profit making within a short period but fail to survive in the long run due to improper investments and machinery obsolescence. However, at DBL we believe that ethical business practices and hefty investments are at the heart of long term growth.

Therefore, from the very beginning, we have been following the sustainable business model by investing in the best types of machinery and developing ethical ways of working.

The machinery inside our spinning mills that we invested on ten years ago is still functioning with 98% efficiency which helps us to deliver goods on time.

Long before compliance issues were raised in the country, DBL was actively complying with standards through its sustainable business model and introduced many innovative work practices.

What was the driving force behind this?

The benefits of our workers were considered even when we first built our factory twenty six years back, which was long before the compliance issues were raised in the country. There was nothing like the green concept back then. However, we always associated worker welfare with better quality production and long-term sustainability. Therefore, the machines brought in our factories had both air and light ventilations and the internal road to our factory entrance was none less than 25 feet to help the larger trucks to pass. We have plans of complying more with the global standards in the future and we hope to have an automated factory within the next 15 years.

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I N T E R V I E W MOHAMMED ABDUR RAHIM

Tell us something about your CSR policies and the sustainability practices of your company.

DBL Group has achieved a global level of expertize over its years of operations. Now that the business environment in the RMG sector is changing, where do you think businesses should focus more?

The Accord and Alliance are working in Bangladesh since two and half years and has mainly concentrated on safety and security issues. Addressing issues like fire safety, building structure and electrical safety fall in the operations of Accord as well. The Accord was formed to make a rating based on measures like building capacity, and other compliance issues. It was observed that after the inspection of Accord and Alliance, a number of factories were closed down. It is now assumed that within the next two years more factories will be closed down due to the compliance issues. Therefore, businesses need to be ethical and take the compliance issues into account more seriously.

DBL Group also had their fair share of ups and downs over a decade. How did your company overcome the failures?

If a company has its vision and mission set right then, it doesn’t take much to overcome failures. We four brothers have been working towards

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sustainable development for a while now and have engaged in CSR activities with different organizations like GIZ, BRAC and other development agencies. We focused on various components ten years back and were already ahead of time. Along with our goodwill, these are the things that enabled us to overcome the failures.

DBL has grown both vertically and horizontally in recent years.

Which other sectors do you plan to enter in the future apart from your current investment in DBL Ceramics?

Our plan is to invest in pharmaceuticals. The pharmaceutical sector in Bangladesh has grown rapidly over time with exports being done by some companies. We have engaged many global consultants into the venture.

An investment was also made in the tiles factory merely three months ago and our product got widely accepted in the market due to its quality and design. Our designing team for the last two years is backed up by a European who has thirty years of experience. We acquired land in Sylhet SEZ, attached to Hobiganj and we have further plans of making more industries and another unit there.

We engaged with a lot of partners for our CSR activities and are now working towards the wellbeing of the children of our workers and employees who passed the HSC Examinations. Every year we organize seminar where faculty members from BUET, Dhaka University, Agriculture University and Textile University gives proper guidance to the students.

They talk to the students and give them career-related solutions. This has benefitted both the workers and their children vastly.

Our idea regarding sustainability is based on five pillars: People, Process, Product, Community and Environment; thus, integrating a holistic approach towards Sustainability. We are involved with several sustainable action programs in large and small scale and short and long term such as Partnership for Cleaner Textiles with IFC; Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals with H&M, Esprit, Puma, and G-Star; Women Empowerment Program with CARE & so on. Through these programs, we have been able to reduce the impact on the environment, and even contribute to community development.

Through these programs, we have been able to achieve low employee turnover, reduce the impact on the environment and even contribute to community development. Our sustainable approach, energy saving machineries and efficient dyeing process saved 351,118 kWh energy, 22,927 cubic meters of water, 120,754 kg of dyes and chemicals and 8,000 kg less waste in the year 2016. DBL uses rain water in its dyeing process by harvesting during monsoon. We have been able to save more than 1.2 billion liters of water in 2016 from our dyeing processes alone, and this contributes to serving over 13,000 families in the community. By minimizing energy use, adopting waste and water recycling and environment friendly components, we always strive with our R&D capabilities and sustainability efforts to make our offerings innovative and collaborative.

Special Report

Violence Against Women

By Tahera Ahsan

1

Introduction Humankind – in full possession of their senses are extremely assimilated to the concept of ‘violence’- from the very subtle to the extremely harmful and starkly apparent forms. Violence in any form and against any being is meant to strike fear regardless of the intentions of the perpetrator and any justification they may have. We as a race display the appropriate reactions - outrage and strong ethos. In most cases, people hold a very narrow definition of what constitutes violence, and a multitude of factors define their perspective regarding the matter. Most importantly, societal factors and the combined attitude of the community towards violence lead to the formation of the individual's views regarding the issue. In today’s tech-driven world, it is acceptable to focus on incidences of violence ‘trending’ in the media, be it the latest murder, shooting, bombing. We argue, we rage, we protest till the nest incident woos our attention. However, at the end of the day, the terror is actually felt when we are the victims or when someone close to us is, and that is when the threat hits closest to home. Violence Against Women (VAW) - is an all-encompassing term used to describe all acts of aggression, half of the world’s population is vulnerable or subjected to. VAW has been a known as a blanket phenomenon for as far back as history goes, and it has remained persistent through the ages. At present, it is safe to say, violence against women, from its very primitive to the very modern form, still exists indiscriminately across the globe.

This violence manifests itself in a variety of ways and is widely discussed in almost all forums- from academics to the media.

Autonomous bodies like the UN, to international and national players in the development sector, have perpetuated directed actions and policies to try and reduce its occurrence and prevalence with limited success. Bangladesh is no exception, both in terms of the existence and measures undertaken to address the violence against women. It is also the geographical focus of this article.

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This report will not be focusing on the origination or sociological standing of violence against women.

It is not a rant on feminism or equality, rather it espouses on analyzing economic indicators which shed light on the demographic trend and evolution of this issue and attempt to enumerate its cost to the economy. The purpose of these analyses is to identify the underlying factors which drive this issue and the indicative policy implications which need to be internalized to address it.

THEREFORE, THE SCOPE OF THIS REPORT IS STRUCTURED TO COVER THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:

n Brief overview of global prevalence and situation on violence against women. n Presentation and analysis of national data on the issue - both demographic and economic trends. n Policy implications and recommendations, based on national and international best practices which could suggest directed actions for the medium term.

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ILLUSTRATION

BY SK. YEAHHIA www.ibtbd.net

2

Methodology and Limitations The basic analysis of demographic trends was conducted based on a national census and socioeconomic surveys conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The main survey which focuses on the topic is the Violence against Women Survey conducted by BBS in 20111 , data from which has been extrapolated in light of the changing demographic face of the population.

While this was a relatively simplistic exercise, the calculation of economic costs was equally complicated and difficult. A large number of research papers and studies conducted globally were reviewed to try and identify a widely accepted or used methodology which could provide the most accurate representation. Unfortunately, even the broad guidelines developed by the UN for this purpose, help define the issue and identify major categories of costs as well as suggest methods which could be implemented. However, none of the methodologies can be applied unless there is a rich national database which has much more varied socioeconomic indicators and extensive reporting systems to collect data on incidences of violence and its resulting direct and indirect costs.

“The absence of data is being felt and deplored in most countries of the region. In particular, victimization surveys and standardized data on the experience of women who personally face incidents of violence are lacking. The planning and monitoring of social and institutional change and the evaluation of its impact is not possible without such information.”2 The types and definitions of economic costs of VAW are categorized as direct and indirect costs under which there are also sub categories of tangible and intangible costs.

“While all tangible costs should be measurable, many are not due to a lack of data. All published estimates of the costs of violence against women include examples of direct tangible costs, and most include some indirect tangible costs, such as lost earnings from time away from paid work. Attempts to measure the direct intangible costs are less frequent and no studies attempt to put a dollar value on the indirect intangibles.”3 1. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Statistics and Information Division (SID) and Ministry of Planning (2017). Report on Violence Against Women Survey 2011. Dhaka.

2. Violence in the Americas - A Regional Analysis Including a Review of the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence Against Women: Executive Summary, 2000.

3. Day, T., Mckenna, K., Bowlus, A., 2005, ‘the Economic Costs of Violence Against Women: An Evaluation of the Literature’, The United Nation Unies.

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TYPES OF COSTS DEFINED

To simplify the understanding of these different costs, the types of costs can be combined into four categories: direct and tangible, indirect and tangible, direct and intangible and indirect and intangible.

Direct tangible costs are actual expenses paid, representing real money spent. Examples are taxi fare to a hospital and salaries for staff in a shelter. These costs can be estimated through measuring the goods and services consumed and multiplying by their unit cost.

Indirect tangible costs have monetary value in the economy, but are measured as a loss of potential. Examples are lower earnings and profits resulting from reduced productivity.

These indirect costs are also measurable, although they involve estimating opportunity costs rather than actual expenditures. Lost personal income, for example, can be estimated by measuring lost time at work and multiplying by an appropriate wage rate.

Direct intangible costs result directly from the violent act but have no monetary value.

Examples are pain and suffering, and the emotional loss of a loved one through a violent death. These costs may be approximated by quality or value of life measures, although there is some debate as to whether or not it is appropriate to include these costs when measuring the economic costs of violence against women.

Indirect intangible costs result indirectly from the violence, and have no monetary value.

Examples are the negative psychological effects on children who witness violence which cannot be estimated numerically.

Source: ‘The Economic Costs of Violence Against Women: An Evaluation of the Literature’, The United Nation

CATEGORIES AND EXAMPLES OF COSTS RESULTING FROM VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN (SOURCE: ‘THE ECONOMIC COSTS OF VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN: AN EVALUATION OF THE LITERATURE’, THE UNITED NATION) JUSTICE

• Police: vehicle use, dispatch center use, emergency response teams, interrogations, training, administrative time, criminal investigations, forensic services, in-court time, restraining orders, coroner.

• Legal: prosecuting and defending lawyers’ time in office, preparation and in court, legal aid, judge time, court time, jury costs, witness time, courts of appeal, Supreme Court hearings and decisions.

• Penal: jail time both before and after sentencing, probation, parole, therapies.

• Related: prisoner support organizations, victim compensation payouts.

HEALTH

• Direct costs include short run and long-term healthcare in doctor’s offices, clinics of all types and hospitals including: • Capital invested in buildings, infrastructure, laboratory equipment, machinery, and vehicles.

• Labor for an ambulance, emergency, and services, hospital admissions, outpatient clinics, support staff, of the physicians’ offices, mental health services and clinics, physicians, nurses, paramedics, physiotherapists, other specialists, psychiatrists, psychologists, alternative healers, dentists, etc.

• Materials needed for diagnostic procedures, treatments, medication, food, etc.

• Health insurance and premium payouts.

• Indirect health costs borne by individuals include reduced longevity, the effects of poor health on lifestyle choices, reduced mobility for participating in public life. HIV/AIDS from coerced sex and health consequences of practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM).

SOCIAL SERVICES

• May apply to victim, perpetrator or children, • Publicly funded services such as shelters, crisis lines, and services, social workers, counseling, home visits, children's services, emergency response teams, firefighters, therapeutic support groups, retraining, networked support services.

• Government's time in addressing laws on violence against women, administration of ministries responsible, government research and policy analysis.

• Research grants, conferences, publications, policy papers, advocacy groups, public awareness campaigns.

• Privately funded services such as hotlines and helplines. Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, community support groups, church-run support, perpetrator therapeutic support groups, volunteer hours, and volunteer agencies.

EDUCATION

• Special education for children who witness violence.

• Job-readiness, training in the local language, re-training for victims and their children.

• School programs aimed at reducing violence against girls.

• Indirect cost of reduced educational attainment for women and their children.

BUSINESS AND EMPLOYMENT COSTS

• Reduced productivity, reduced output, reduced profits.

• Administrative time and costs of searching, hiring and training replacements.

• Programs for creating safe workplaces, training staff, on-site medical services, Employee Assistance Plans.

• Overtime paid to co-workers who cover for the victim.

• Relocation, separation pay, benefits, insurance premiums.

• Grievances for incidents occurred at work, supervisory time, processing complaints, litigation, court time, compensation expenses.

• Lost tax revenue from reduced output and income, lower GNP

PERSONAL OR HOUSEHOLD COST

• Lost earnings from time off work, lower productivity, less attachment to the labor force, expenses of a new job search.

• Medical fees, therapies, counselling, transportation for doctors or legal appointments, childcare for same, medications, prescriptions, treatment programs, alternative healing, self-help materials.

• Lower savings and investments.

• Lost household productivity in unpaid work, loss of economies of scale if separating.

• Legal fees for assault, custody, separation or divorce cases.

• Ongoing child custody disputes, custody arrangements or visitation problems requiring time, attention and resources to solve.

• Interest on loans, car rentals, lost deductibles on insurance claims, bad debts of ex-spouse, loss of shared pensions or transfer payments.

• Expenses incurred from relocation, replacing destroyed articles, repairing damage to home or possessions, temporary accommodation.

• Funerals and burials.

• Other out-of-pocket expenses such as interpreters, drugs, alcohol, protection services, self-defense courses, rehabilitation and recovery programs, special diets, unlisted phone numbers.

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International Concepts and Trends on the Prevalence and Causes of VAW

INTANGIBLES • • • • •

Pain and suffering of the victim and her children.

Death of victim or perpetrator, including suicides.

Second generation effects on children who witness violence.

Loss of freedom for incarcerated perpetrators.

Fear of violence among women in society.

For our purpose, while the VAW survey by BBS does help in reporting the prevalence and occurrence of the incidents of VAW, the calculation of economic costs was limited to extrapolation of small scale studies conducted on the topic by various donor agencies. Most importantly, owing to severe economic development challenges faced by a large number of the population and underlying social attitudes towards female population, it is not possible to calculate the intangible costs (psychological costs mainly) of VAW which is a major cost borne by the victims and by extension their families and the entire female population of a nation. The negative externalities of incidences of VAW in any community, whether in the form of psychological impacts on the development of the young female population or the additional stress caused to families with female children is not possible to enumerate, simply due to data limitations.

Despite these limitations, care has been taken to calculate and present information based on existing data with sound economic and mathematical justifications, as applicable.

Readers must therefore take heed on considering the numbers as absolute or fully representative and focus more on the broader implications of what the data suggests.

Violence against women has been recognized internationally as a major violation of a woman’s human rights.

This was formalized in 1993 with the United Nations “Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women” “The term ‘violence against women’ means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.” 4 Furthermore, it can be said to include but not be limited to: “(a) Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of female children in the household, dowry-related violence, marital rape, female genital mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women, non-spousal violence and violence related to exploitation; (b) Physical, sexual and psychological violence occurring within the general community, including rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in educational institutions and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced prostitution; (c) Physical, sexual and psychological violence perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever it occurs.” 5

Despite these serious declarations and recognitions of the problem, a WHO Factsheet on VAW reports distressing information as shown below in the following table: TABLE 1: MAJOR POINTS FROM THE FACTSHEET ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN Ø Violence against women particularly intimate partner violence and sexual violence are major public health problems and violations of women's human rights. Ø Global estimates published by WHO indicate that about 1 in 3 (35%) women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. Ø Most of this violence is intimate partner violence. Worldwide, almost one third (30%) of women who have been in a relationship report that they have experienced some form of physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partner in their lifetime. Ø Globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by a male intimate partner. Ø Violence can negatively affect women’s physical, mental, sexual and reproductive health, and may increase vulnerability to HIV. Source: Factsheet on Violence Against Women, WHO, November 2016

4. Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, UN Doc A/RES/48/104, Article 1, 20 December 1993 5. Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, UN Doc A/RES/48/104, Article 2, 20 December 1993.

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DRAWING & ILLUSTRATION BY JASON SABBIR DHALI INSPIRED BY PICASSO

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NATIONAL DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS AND ECONOMIC COST ANALYSIS OF VAW The VAW Survey of 2011 was the first of its kind and conducted during the formulation of domestic violence act of Bangladesh.

Perhaps owing to the timing of the survey and its larger purpose of contributing and shaping the Act, the focus was majorly on domestic/marital/intimate partner violence and less so on non-intimate partner violence.

Despite that, the VAW Survey 2011 does provide some staggering figures which does raise several red flags.

The VAW survey recognizes four (4) main forms of violence - physical, sexual, psychological and economic violence. The survey reports on violence perpetrated by intimate partner and non-intimate partner and for each type of violence the respondents provide two indications of the timeline, violence experienced in the past twelve months and violence experienced at any point in their lives. The summary findings for violence perpetrated by intimate partner at the national level, mainly referring to husband, by type of violence and aggregate figures are shown in Figure 1. When referring to the past twelve months, 77% of women reported having experienced some form of violence from their current husband. This figure basically indicates that at least 7 out of every 10 married women have been subjected to violence by their current husband in the past year. When looking at

the breakdown by types of violence, incidences of psychological violence was the highest reported form whereby 72% women mentioned having experienced it. This is followed by a little over 30% women reporting physical and economic violence, and 24% reported having experienced sexual violence. These figures are alarming when considering that this represents the condition nearly half of the country’s population, who are therefore oppressed in some form, within their own households.

Given the social stigma surrounding sexual violence and the conservative and often aggressive perception regarding this in our societies, it is safe to assume that the sexual violence figures are an understatement.

Additionally, since we are referring to intimate partners here, sexual violence within a marriage is not even recognized by the victims or the perpetrators. The reported incidents are usually in case of extreme sexual violence whereby the victims perhaps could not cover it under the semblance of ‘marital issues’ only.

4

Figure 1: Percentage of Women who experienced violence by current husband, by different types of violence 90 80

87

Ever Last 12 months

82

77

72

65

70

Violence Perpretrated by current husband-National

53

60 50

33

40

36

32

24

30 20 10 0 Any type of Violence

Physical Violence

Sexual Violence

Psychological Violence

Economic Violence

Source: Report on Violence Against Women Survey 2011, BBS

Table 3 shows the VAW findings on incidents of violence reported by women by non-partners, therefore mainly referring to perpetrators other than their husbands. The nationally reported figure for this is much lower at 8.4%, which is in sharp contrast to the intimate partner violence incidents discussed above. However, 25.1% women reported having experienced some form violence by non-intimate partners in their lifetime. This effectively means that at least 1 out of every 4 women of the country have experienced some form of violence from non-intimate partners in their lifetime. This is once again quite disconcerting, since this basically indicates that the female population is at risk of experiencing violence regardless of whether they are married or not, and more so, if they are married. If a national survey shows these high figures of prevalence, it indicates deep rooted misogynistic societal beliefs and also a general acceptance of the phenomenon as ‘normal’ behavior. In section 4.1, we will further explore these figures by age groups to analyze the demographic trend and highlight the age groups of women who are potentially most vulnerable to violence.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY FARHANA FARA

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Table 2: Percentage of Women who experienced any type of violence in last 12 months by age group, according to locality Age Group 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60+ Total

Current husbands % 76.06 82.03 79.71 78.80 79.52 76.50 71.89 71.38 73.33 62.29 77.34

National Previous husband % 1074488 44.17 3520413 51.22 4854854 21.21 4487785 36.57 4108511 36.87 3277626 37.74 2175743 36.63 1472385 33.23 781938 34.87 103952 31.64 26792993 34.67

No of Women

No of Women 59114 141949 185821 273395 353833 486068 377029 453277 424705 1106726 3861463

Current husbands % 79.75 83.88 81.63 81.55 82.58 77.43 73.69 73.41 74.18 64.31 79.42

Rural No Previous of husband Women % 808408 53.85 2572822 48.42 3614980 25.20 3309563 33.52 2966142 39.81 2381962 39.64 1597910 35.50 1169741 31.09 622253 33.79 790855 30.01 19834637 34.11

Table 3: Percentage of Women who experienced any type of violence from non-partners, according to locality.

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Current husband % 17677 54244 48946 59908 80415 151281 116486 137575 107056 265701 1039291

Table 2 shows the age-wise distribution of the percentage of women who experienced any type of violence in the preceding year. While the average percentage of women subjected to violence seem to vary marginally across age cohorts, the higher figures are clustered towards the younger age cohorts mainly the age group of 20-24 years of age of which 82.03% of women reported having experienced some form of violence. Unfortunately, the percentage for almost all the age groups except that of the 60+ years are non-discriminately above 70% which is once again an alarming figure considering that it affects more than half the female population of the country. The demographic trend also shows that the prevalence of violence is clustered majorly between the age group of 20-40 years of age and tends to decline gradually in the subsequent cohorts. This therefore requires further examination as to identify what the factors which are affecting the occurrence of incidences of violence, impact of which is getting reduced as the women ages. The factor which affects violence across age groups could be of many forms, from exposure to experience or even a general increase in tolerance among women after they reach a certain age. Identification of what is the main factor that is changing in the older age groups is what is essential to recognize the psychological and relation pattern changes which affect these declines.

Source: Report on Violence Against Women Survey 2011, BBS

Table 4: Percentage of Women who experienced any type of non-partner violence during lifetime or in the last 12 months, by age group, according to locality

Ever Rural % 26.85 32.44 29.18 27.78 27.89 27.85 24.45 24.49 21.99 17.48 27.15

Urban No Previous of husband Women % 266077 21.48 947591 55.73 1239874 10.02 1178222 47.41 1142369 26.88 895664 33.54 577833 39.15 302644 38.12 159685 38.08 248397 36.83 6958356 36.21

Demographic Trends and Future Estimated Direction

Any type of Violence National Rural Urban Ever 25.11 27.15 18.90 In the past 12 months 8.44 8.89 7.24 # of women respondents 32891883 23766450 9125433

Age National Group % 15-19 24.85 20-24 27.77 25-29 26.73 30-34 24.88 35-39 26.12 40-44 25.51 45-49 23.75 50-54 24.83 55-59 20.55 60+ 18.50 Total 25.11

41436 87250 136875 213487 273418 334787 260544 315702 317649 841025 2822173

Current husbands % 64.85 77.99 74.10 71.09 71.58 74.03 66.90 63.55 70.03 55.84 71.41

4.1

Source: Report on Violence Against Women Survey 2011, BBS

A USAID study, ‘Summary of Domestic Violence Against Women: Cost to the Nation Report’ was a small scale study conducted at three locations and calculated costs of the victim and their families for justice, health and lost income which was then extrapolated to calculate national costs. Within its limited scope, it reached the following findings“The total national cost of domestic violence against women is at least Taka 14,358 crore. This is about 12.54 percent of the government expenditure for year 2010 and 2.10 percent of GDP.” The economic costs calculation for the purpose of this report will be broadly drawn from this study and extrapolated to estimate costs at current time period. It must be noted that the study covered three rural locations only and therefore costs calculated for victims are not nationally representative.

Despite that, this would also mean that figures are understated and calculations of same at national level will indicate much higher figures.

The detailed discussion of economic costs and analysis will be covered in section 4.2.

No of Women

Urban 19.00 15.84 19.74 16.69 20.99 18.63 21.00 24.07 15.68 20.19 18.90

Last 12 months National Rural Urban % % 11.33 12.06 9.45 11.07 12.39 7.86 10.32 11.57 7.07 7.74 8.15 6.69 8.81 8.98 8.40 6.77 7.08 6.00 4.97 5.13 4.54 8.32 7.98 9.39 4.28 3.82 5.82 4.56 4.05 6.11 8.44 8.89 7.24

No. of respondents (N) National

Rural

Urban

3123257 4165246 5152031 4754637 4367606 3641268 2487296 1902257 1170542 2127743 32891883

2247228 2947846 3719280 3427577 3105708 2579966 1794702 1443599 903591 1596953 23766450

876029 1217400 1432751 1327060 1261897 1061302 692594 458658 266951 530790 9125433

Demographically, the age-wise distribution of violence against non-intimate partners presents a distinct pattern which would be far extending repercussions at the policy level. Table 4 taken from the VAW survey shows the age-wise distribution of women who have been subjected to any form of violence by non-intimate partner in their lifetime and over the last 12 months, at the national rural and urban levels. The interesting figure is the higher percentage of women in the younger age groups 15-19, 20-24 and 25-29

years who are particularly subjected to non-partner violence as opposed to other age groups which report single digit percentages. What is unfortunately notable here is the implication of these figures which essentially points to sexual harassment or abuse of women outside of an intimate relationship and therefore also encompasses child abuse. This demographic pattern is further corroborated by figures of rape in recent years collected by Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK). These ASK figures are shown in Table 5.

Table 5: Violence against Women (Rape) 2013 2014 2015 2016 Form of Rape Total Deaths Total Deaths Total Deaths Total Deaths Attempt ofrape 185 4 81 5 94 2 65 2 Rape 533 32 387 13 484 9 444 12 Gang rape 256 33 208 29 245 33 197 14 The type of rape 24 18 31 21 23 16 18 9 is not mentioned

The implications of the demographic patterns shown more importantly denote the need for focusing on both intimate and non-intimate violence experienced by the younger age group of women, particularly between the ages of 15-29 years of age.

The abuses they face include both child and domestic abuse and this has serious repercussions for the psychological, physiological and economic status of these women/girls. Given that this also denotes the age group which also contains a majority of the child bearing age women, the abuse they face may have repercussions for health and wellness of future population as well as the economic empowerment and proliferation of half of the population of the country and by extension, the country as a whole.

2017 ( Upto April) Total Deaths 29 100 3 36 2 2

1

Source: Rape Report, Ain o Salish Kendra

4.2

Economic Cost of VAW

The economic cost calculation of cost of VAW was only limited to cost of domestic violence, since this is the only form of violence against women which has been subjected to some form of study/research. For our purposes, we are drawing extensively from the USAID study 8 which was a small scale study based on three districts conducted as household survey on a sample of 500 households. The survey calculated the economic cost of in the form of direct costs to the victims and their families in the form of justice cost, medical cost and indirect cost to same in the form of lost livelihood opportunities or income owing to damage caused by domestic violence. When referring to domestic violence here, the study referred to physical violence mainly and so for our purposes we have also calculated the costs for same, as shown in Table 6.

Table 6: Population Statistics and Cost of Domestic Physical Violence against Women in Bangladesh General Statistics

FY10

FY11

FY12

FY13

FY14

FY15

FY16

10552.0

11989.2

13436.7

15158.0

17328.0

GDP at Current Prices (BDT in Billions)

7975.4

9158.3

CPI Inflation (%) Total Government Expenditure/Budget (BDT in Billions)

6.8 1105.2

10.9 1300.1

8.7 1612.1

6.8 1893.3

7.4 2162.2

6.4 2396.7

5.9 2645.7

285.0 146.1

358.8 149.7

410.8 151.6

523.7 153.7

600.0 155.8

750.0 157.9

910.0 159.9

71.9 36.6

73.7 37.5

74.6 38.0

75.6 38.5

76.7 39.1

77.7 39.6

78.7 40.1

Annual Development Program (ADP) (BDT in Billi ons)

Population in millions Female Population millions Married Female Population in millions

Popu lation Statistics on Violence Against Women (Women experienced Violence by Current Husband) Any type of Violence -National level % of Total Population

28.2 19.3

28.9 19. 3

29.3 19.3

29.7 19.3

30.1 19.3

30.5 19.3

30.9 19.3

% of Female Population Affected

39.2

39.2

39.2

39.2

39.2

39.2

39.2

Last 12 months (46.4%)(Population in millions)

17.0

17.4

17.6

17.9

18.1

18.4

18.6

% of Total Population

11.6

11.6

11.6

11.6

11.6

11.6

11.6

% of Female Population Affected

23.6

23.6

23.6

23.6

23.6

23.6

23.6

Last 12 months (77%) (Population in millions)

Physical Violence - National level

Economic Cost of Domestic Violence Against Women Direct cost of marital violence per family in BDT Lost income due to marital violence per family in BDT Total direct loss to HHs due to marital violence in BDT

Cost of domestic violence (BDT in billions) As % of GDP As % of Government Expenditure

11180.0

12399.7

13477.3

14391.0

15448.8

16437.5

17407.3

8228.0

9125.7

9918.7

10591.2

11369.6

12097.3

12811.0

19408.0

21525.4

23396.0

24982.2

26818.4

28534.8

30218.3

329.9 4.1

374.9 4.1

412.6 3.9

446.7 3.7

486.1 3.6

524.2 3.5

562.1 3.2

29.8

28.8

25.6

23.6

22.5

21.9

21.2

Source: “Summary of Domestic Violence Against Women: Cost to the Nation Report”, USAID. Economic Review 2016, MOF and Author’s own calculation

8. Summary of Domestic Violence Against Women: Cost to the Nation Report’, 2010.

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Since the study was conducted in 2010, the costs were adjusted for inflation for each of the subsequent years and then calculated in light of the population statistics for the victims extrapolated from the VAW survey data. This simplistic exercise shows that the cost of domestic violence, under a very conservative approach, while declining, still constitute about 3.2% of the GDP in 2016. A more staggering figure is that this cost is equivalent to about 21.2% of national budget as of 2016, which is higher than the combined budgetary allocation of the health, education and social safety net combined.

These figures only reveal a portion of the costs associated with VAW as costs associated with the psychological trauma and other intangible costs is not even possible to compute due to unavailability of necessary data on average labor force income. This essentially means that a very rudimentary calculation of the cost of only domestic violence shows that 23.6% of the female population is affected by this and they alone constitute costs which can be equalized to more than one-fifth of the national budget. In sharp contrast, the government social safety net programs which contain most of the limited programs targeted towards VAW as a whole constituted only 13.6% of the national budget. This clearly indicates the significant gap in the funds allocated to address the problem and the estimated costs of the same.

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5

Ø “Factors associated with increased risk of experiencing intimate partner and sexual violence includes low education, exposure to violence between parents, abuse during childhood, attitudes accepting violence and gender inequality.” 10

Policy implications, recommendations and concluding remarks Ø

Ø One of the major reasons behind conducting studies to calculate economic costs of VAW has been stated as follows:

“Measuring the costs of violence against women demonstrates how violence drains resources from many sectors including private businesses and agencies, the government, community groups and individuals.

This is particularly true in the developing world where it is especially important not to remove scarce resources from the promotion of healthy and viable communities.

Violence against women impedes economic and social development. To make development funding go farther, reducing rates of violence is an important component of social policy. Demonstrating the waste of resources resulting from violence against women through estimating the economic costs of violence is therefore a useful exercise.” 9

Tahera Ahsan is a Policy Specialist, Advocacy for Social Change at BRAC. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not necessarily condoned by the organization. She can be reached at tahera_ahsan@hotmail.com

Ø A stellar example of a developing nation and a country where the prevalence of VAW is widespread in the spheres of society and through all income groups, Bangladesh needs to take some major steps to at least collect data and conduct studies on the issue to understand it better. Upon better understanding of the issue it will allow for more evidence based policy which could than provide actual help to 50% of its population. Ø Bangladesh has a budding young population which is expected to contribute greatly to its future economic growth and development. This cannot be achieved without basic security and protection of 50% of its population.

Ø

Ø

Ø

Ø

Awareness campaigns and incorporation of information on domestic violence into school curriculum could go a long way to address behavioral and perspective changes towards VAW. An Act on domestic violence will not suffice and rather behavioral and perspective changes need to be perpetuated through education and awareness at school level, especially to address the violence faced by the younger age group.

Need for reporting anonymously even could be a basic starting point. This has to be a collaborative effort between NGOs and Government with the victims being provided with anonymity and support as and only if asked by victims. The aim being the collection of sufficient data to create evidence backed policy which will hopefully instigate changes in mindset and perspectives in the long run.

Bangladesh has immense potential and economic empowerment programs for women have proven time and again that development indicatives’ cannot be successful without full participation and economic and social freedom of women.

It is time our policies reflect this, not simply through providing aid to destitute women rather trying to ensure women do not reach that state.

Collection of data may seem like a non-direct policy initiative but in order to address such a sensitive issue, one must first understand the depth and prevalence of a problem and identify why and how it manifests itself.

9. Day, T., Mckenna, K., Bowlus, A., 2005, ‘the Economic Costs of Violence Against Women: An Evaluation of the Literature’, The United Nation Unies.

10. WHO, Violence Against Women factsheet, November 2016.

Interview

IMTIAZ HUSSAIN

Chief Executive Officer RAK Ceramics (Bangladesh) Limited

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I N T E R V I E W IMTIAZ HUSSAIN

“We always welcome and accept challenges and perform accordingly to remain on top of this industry.”

Imtiaz Hussain was appointed as the CEO of RAK Ceramics in 2013. He started his journey with RAK Ceramics in 1999 as a Sales Manager. After working for almost 10 years he was promoted as DGM (Sales & Marketing) in 2009.

From there he became GM (Sales & Marketing) and after that he has been promoted as COO before being appointed as the CEO.

Q

Tell us about the mission of your company.

RAK Ceramics was established in 1999 as a joint venture company of RAK Ceramics UAE. We went for commercial production of tiles in 2000 with the capacity of 8000 square meters a day only. After that with the support of our stakeholders, acceptance of our customers and by dint of technology and continuous innovation, we devoted our efforts to enhance the capacity. The 2nd expansion took place in 2004 with the capacity of another 8000 square meters tiles per day. In the same year, we also set up the factory plant for sanitary ware with the production capacity of 1500 pieces a day. The expansion process was repeated in 2007 and 2016. As of today, RAK Ceramics is the largest manufacturer of both tiles and sanitary ware. When it comes to tiles, we have the production capacity of 32000 square meters per day, which is around 11.6 million meters per year. In case of sanitary ware, the production capacity is 4200 pieces per day, around 1.47 million pieces per year. These data show how, from its beginning, the company wanted to become number one in its field in Bangladesh. I along with my colleagues, especially Md. Mahbubur Rahman, GM – HR & Admin and Md. Jahirull Reza, GM - SCM gave everything to this company for almost

18 years with full dedication, loyalty and honesty. I must thank our Chairman, Abdallah Massaad and Managing Director, S.A.K. Ekramuzzaman for their vision and guidance. Their experience in this sector helped us immensely.

What is the current status of the company as more and more players are investing in this field?

There is no doubt that this sector has potential, which is why there are new entrants into the market. We appreciate this trend and welcome our competitors. We always welcome and accept challenges and perform accordingly to remain on top of this industry. When this company started its journey, two or three local players were there who had a good grip on the market at that time. For the last 18 years, we have taken effective strategic decisions, focusing not only the growth of the market but also in the enhancement of the technological aspect of production with the support of R&D from RAK UAE which enabled us to emerge as one of the most innovative companies in this sector.

We were the first company to launch double charge feeder for making tiles; we also pioneered the launch of bigger sized tiles like 40X40cm2 in 2004 and 60X60cm2 in 2007. We even have the capacity to produce 60X1202 or even 1X1m2 sized tiles. In sanitary ware segment, we also launched products like single piece rimless water closets, wall-hung water closet, which could only be imported; no one was locally making it when we inaugurated those in the market. Many of our competitors don’t have adequate designers collections; only a few basic designs, combo-sets etc. They’re already exporting to 165 countries and have better knowledge about the taste of the customers and changing trends in the market. With their help, we have managed to introduce more than a thousand designs of tiles and 30 designs of sanitary ware, which has put us ahead of the competition.

What is the market share right at this moment?

As of 2016, our market share is 22% in Tiles and around 34% in Sanitary

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I N T E R V I E W IMTIAZ HUSSAIN

Ware. I would like to mention here that with 1231 people per square meter, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries of the world. Our GDP growth is also among the top five countries of the world.

One data we have gathered that in China per capita tiles consumption is 0.5 square meter; in India it is 0.2 square meter and in Bangladesh, it is less than that. Besides, in case of purchasing power parity, Bangladesh stands at 32nd position in the world with a continuous increase in per capita income. These all data make me hopeful about a further flourishing market ensuring more business for companies.

What are the challenges of this industry?

The direct consumers of our products are real estate companies. As we all know for the last 4-5 years the slow growth rate in the real estate industry put this sector through a tough time.

However, the government has taken few initiatives to make a good number of apartments under RAJUK that has helped us indirectly. Also some privately owned companies have come up with big projects of constructing a large number apartments. Both of these have enabled good business opportunities; but for small companies, the competition is harsh as their manufacturing capacity is limited just like their designs where they got nothing much to offer for significant clients. Additionally, scarcity of natural gas supply to some areas has been hampering production facility.

How does RAK Ceramics plan on sustaining its large customer base?

It took us almost two decades to build this noteworthy customer base.

During the 90s, only two or three local companies stepped into the market with a limited capacity and low ranged products. When RAK Ceramics launched with the greater mission and vision adding innovative and strategic marketing plan it becomes the most popular company from that time only. By visiting every single project with an effective sales and marketing team – we created new

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era. As a part of our mission, we developed a strong personal rapport with clients and always managed to provide adequate after sales support while required. On occasions, we trained those who were engaged in the activities of fittings tiles and sanitary ware. These people acted as good referral points for us. On top of these, our innovative designs helped quench the customers’ thirst for new tiles to amplify the aesthetics of their abode. Besides, due to technological advancements, people are now more conscious about their health.

Previously, people used to use the same sanitary ware for 20 years but that trend is changing. We have seen people are opting for better-designed new sanitary ware in every five years because they were concerned about the health aspects. Even though our sanitary ware have antimicrobial glaze, some clients are interested to change those after short time, as they don’t want to take any chance. There are also instances of people fitting new tiles on the old ones using adhesives, which was quite impossible in the days of mosaic floors. As we are technologically advanced, we have a dream to set up such manufacturing plant which will be run by robots; this will be a value added project. Besides, we are looking for ways to make it more energy-efficient to tackle the lack of natural gas supply in the industry.

How is RAK trying to mitigate the environmental burden of tiles production?

All our factories have ETP plants for recycling the water. We have dust collectors to prevent air pollution.

Waste management is a big issue in this industry. To reduce the leftovers, we are crushing them into tiny pieces to reuse in our bigger tiles. We always focus on developing eco-friendly products by maintaining the total compliance.

What about workers’ compliance?

We are one of the highest payers in the market. Besides the regular salary, we offer overtime, bonuses, special rewards, etc. Due to these benefits, whenever there were

manpower agitations in the sector, RAK was never affected. As a part of our CSR, we have Workers Profit Participation Fund, from where any worker in need of financial support during emergency can receive alimony.

What has been the recipe for your success inside RAK? What made you stick to this company for two decades?

I started working with S.A.K. Ekramuzzaman back in 1996 while we used to deal with the imported products from RAK Ceramics UAE as we were the only Bangladeshi agent.

Later when the joint venture company was set up, they selected me. So starting from there till today, in every sphere of my journey I have enjoyed it as if it was my own company. The dedication, honesty and loyalty eventually paid off. I believe that everything is possible in this world if you have a proper aim and determination to work hard to attain that. My aim was to be on the top of this company and now I am the CEO, in fact the youngest one in the group.

For this, only marketing knowledge was not adequate. I had to be familiar with the entire production process.

My desire to go into the depth of the know-hows helped me understand the challenges well. I always ask my colleagues to enlighten themselves with as much knowledge as possible.

Also, having a dynamic team that understands my visions and work accordingly was very useful.

As a leader, where do you see it in next five years?

My aim is to double the growth in terms of turnover. As of today, we have the turnover of about Tk 1000 crore, which we simply want to double in next five years. Also, we have plans to set up two or more plants for other building materials.

We would also like to explore the export opportunities in some neighboring countries and other potential destinations.

Interview

MD. FARHAN MOSHARRAF Chairman, Paradise Electric & Electronics Industries Limited Director, Paradise Group

Md. Farhan Mosharraf founded Paradise Electric & Electronics Industries Ltd (PEEIL) in the year 2014. He is also a Director at Paradise Cables Ltd. Fortified with an entrepreneurial spirit and a keen eye for new business ventures, he enjoys managing all facets of the company i.e. marketing, brand and communications, business development, client servicing, sales, etc. Under his able creative and dynamic leadership PEEIL has been growing to become one of the largest electronics companies in Bangladesh within a short span of time. Now he is the founder Chairman and CEO of PEEIL. Farhan completed his studies at the University of Toronto in Canada.

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the world. I think this process of new innovation and ideas is a continuous cycle and it changes along with time and technology.

“Success for me is to believe in yourself and your thoughts and make others adapt to that belief.”

Q

What are the key components of the success of Paradise Group?

I believe that the main components of success of Paradise Group are quality, vision to serve customers and clients with utmost level of comfort and the provision to excel forward and adapt to next level technological advancement.

How is Paradise Group generating new ideas and staying ahead in the market?

Paradise Group believes that ‘the customer is the king’, so we as a group tend to think of what our customers want and how they want it. Paradise Group has been well ahead of its time in terms of innovation and technological advancements such as the digitalization of our 60 showrooms in different districts and monitoring them from our corporate head office in Dhaka.

We have a compliant and advanced R&D department for generating new ideas and also for modifying current and existing products for the betterment of our clients. Then we have the international business development and sourcing department who grab innovation and technology for the generated new ideas from different parts of

How do you define success? What is the best way to achieve long-term success?

Success for me is to believe in yourself and your thoughts and make others adapt to that belief. I feel that the best way to achieve long term success is through dedication, hard work, determination and self-confidence.

What are your thoughts on the business climate in Bangladesh?

Well, firstly I would say that the business climate in Bangladesh so far is smooth and excelling.

Secondly, I would like to emphasize that “we” as a whole “business community” are still not clear as to where we want Bangladesh to stand in the international community. For example, let’s take the look of Singapore, India and China.

Singapore wanted to become a business hub and with accurate planning and abrupt long term execution, Singapore is now a business hub. Similarly, India is a patriotic nation and known for its patriotism, whereas, China has become manufacturers and world super powers. My question is, where do we stand or where does Bangladesh stand? We need to develop our country branding.

"Made in Bangladesh" should be our tagline.

If you can see clearly as a leader in the electric & electronics industry, Paradise Group has stick to its long term plan. Only then can you achieve your milestones, overcoming all the obstacles.

Through all this, we are now fulfilling the local demand for cables as well as exporting cables in the international market. You would be glad to know that Paradise Cables is the only internationally certified cable company (Kema Keur, DNV-GL & BASEC Approved) in Bangladesh, exporting Made in Bangladesh cables to the international market. This achievement was possible due to

the clear vision, planning and execution. So my point is that the regulatory bodies for all business communities need to create international long term policies to place Bangladesh on the global arena. Believe me, it is very much achievable because we have the expertise, the manpower and the talent. Just the vision needs to be clear, the policies needs to be catered in a business friendly manner and long term planning and execution needs to be implemented.

What is your vision regarding the expansion of Paradise Group?

Well to me attitude defines success and that success in return denotes and defines vision. Paradise Group has no looking back and with its collective group of expertise and intellectuals, hopefully in the coming years the group shall endeavor in most business sectors of Bangladesh and cater to make the lives of the population safer, bigger, better, responsive and reliable with technology playing in its advancements.

What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?

I believe that my most favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur is the ability to innovate and make people’s lives easier. Believing in yourself and your vision and to make others believe in it is the best innovation ever. Being an entrepreneur is not about the ideas.

It’s about making ideas happen. So I would advise the energetic, talented young generation of our country that if they want to do something, do it now. Don’t be a dreamer, be a doer. www.ibtbd.net

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micro-entrepreneurship

In Bloom Floriculture is a nascent industry in Bangladesh with a short history of flower production or consumption. With a 90% market share, cut flower is easily the dominant component of the industry distantly followed by foliage with 9% market share. The remaining 1% constitutes ornamentals and orchids. Over last two decades, flowers have become an attractive commodity, and farmers are responding well to rapidly increasing areas under flower cultivation. More than 150,000 people are involved in the flower value chain, including its production and trade with more than 3,000 hectares of land under cultivation.

This is where the USAID’s Agricultural Value Chain (AVC) project comes in. The AVC is a five-year project funded by USAID under its Feed the Future initiative to improve the food security scenario in Bangladesh by strengthening agricultural value chains. AVC aims to achieve broad-based economic growth and enhance long-term food security in 20 districts of the Southern Delta of Bangladesh by applying a market systems approach.

Agricultural value chains in Bangladesh are typically fragmented and lack investment and inclusion of vulnerable groups. Additionally, Bangladeshi farmers often lack the knowledge or resources to engage in a higher value (more competitive) and more nutritious crop value chains. The AVC project will strengthen agricultural markets systems as well as local capacities. Also, the AVC project will ensure effective gender integration and youth participation.

The geographic focus of AVC for Floriculture is Jessore and Jhenaidah under the Khulna Division.

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THIS CONTENT IS DEVELOPED IN ASSOCIATION WITH

MORE THAN 150,000 PEOPLE ARE INVOLVED IN THE FLOWER VALUE CHAIN, INCLUDING ITS PRODUCTION AND TRADE WITH MORE THAN 3,000 HECTARES OF LAND UNDER CULTIVATION.”

www.ibtbd.net

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PRODUCTION OPPORTUNITIES AND CONSTRAINTS

Knowledge of good cut flower production practices among producers is weak and limited to several distinct geographic clusters. Planting material is not available in Bangladesh. The capital requirements for several important varieties of flowers, particularly gerbera and roses that require the perennial planting material or shade protection, is higher than for most food crops.

Dhaka has no permanent flower market, and the current wholesale locations offer substandard facilities. The viability of international production technologies that adhere more closely to world standards has not been proven in Bangladesh.

AVC’S WORK IN FLORICULTURE

AVC builds the capacity of the actors involved in the flower value chain in the Southern Delta so they are better able to market their products nationwide. AVC also ensures that the income of the targeted groups are enhanced and new jobs are created in the region. There is also new private sector investment along with increased sales at farm level in Sothern Delta.

AVC, first of all, capitalizes on opportunities to simply expand production to serve the existing mass market’s growing demands. Secondly, the project goes for more strategic interventions that seek to test, develop and bring to commercially scale new flowers and technologies that have the potential to create value for all actors in the value chain.

The flower market system, which is mostly different from the other AVC market systems, is a story of a young system with tremendous untapped potential. It has established solid foundations that would allow the system to be inclusive (i.e., transparent, clear, consistent, and growth-oriented) and responsive to changing consumer patterns, as opposed to a system with a story of long evolved behaviors and tendencies that are rooted within the system, creating barriers to faster, more inclusive growth.

AVC works on three systemic capabilities to root certain behavioral patterns and tendencies that result in inclusive growth. The first is an ability to orient the overall system to listen for, influence when possible and respond when necessary to consumer demand. This systemic capacity revolves around market and branding skills, but also includes wider relational patterns that reach from farmer to consumer and back.

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PHOTOGRAPHS : HABIBUL HAQUE FOR USAID

The second evolved systemic capacity/characteristic is related to supply chain management and value chain governance norms. AVC caters to the growing market demand for flowers, but behavioral patterns are starting to follow problematic patterns seen in the more mature market systems. For example, the flower system has not demonstrated an ability to adjust or adapt when opportunities and threats present themselves, such as genetic material challenges, quality concerns, post-harvest loss, and an increasingly segmented market. There is a real threat that the wider enabling environment problems will blunt innovation pathways and create perceived barriers that limit effective alliances from forming.

The third systemic capacity that AVC works with is inputs.

Some labs have the capacity to develop and deliver improved genetic materials, and there are nurseries which effectively provide commercially viable varieties, but at present, it is unclear if these relational networks will form effectively.

THE FLOWER MARKET SYSTEM, WHICH IS MOSTLY DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER AVC MARKET SYSTEMS, IS A STORY OF A YOUNG SYSTEM WITH TREMENDOUS UNTAPPED POTENTIAL.

Watch Sajeda’s Story Titled Blooming Business @ USAID Bangladesh’s YouTube Channel

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: VISIT WWW.USAID.GOV/BANGLADESH OR WWW.AVCBD.COM OR CONTACT AVCINFO@DAI.COM

MOSAMMAD SAJEDA BEGUM, A BENEFICIARY OF THE AVC PROJECT:

“My husband used to do small scale flower farming and I used to help him sometimes. Ten years ago, he fell from a tree and broke his back. So I took over the flower business. My name is Mosammad Sajeda Begum and I live in the Southern part of Bangladesh. When I first started farming, I didn't have a good harvest. I had a lot of difficulties getting in touch with buyers.

If the buyers didn't come to the farm, I would sit by the roadside and wait to see when they would show up with their carts. In our area, there was a training on flower farming. They taught us how to make better quality flowers. And how to cut, store and package them. After using the new techniques, my production has more than doubled. Now I have no problems getting in touch with the buyers. I have an excellent relationship with them. My flowers are taken from my farm to the local market. From the local market, they go to Dhaka. From Dhaka, they go to big stores, where they are sold. From the stores, they are used in big events. From my incomes, I have made repairs to my house. I am paying for my children's education. I have paid off my loans. Whatever I have learned, I have taught the flower farmers around me as well, so that they can also farm flowers. My dream is to help my children grow up to be good people. I never thought I would become such a big flower farmer.” www.ibtbd.net

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Climate Change and Food Security

Where Do We go from Here

Submerged houses, displaced families and miles and miles of flood water. This is the scene which can be found in most of northern and southern Bangladesh, at present. Above average rainfalls in this monsoon season coupled with water diverted from India has led some to speculate that the flood in 2017 may rival that of 1988.

Bangladesh being one of the largest deltas on earth is particularly prone to natural disasters. This leads to hundreds being killed, thousands losing their homes and being displaced and billions incurred in financial losses. In a 2015 report by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics titled ‘Bangladesh Disaster Related Statistics: 2015’ reveals that the country suffered losses amounting to $2.33 billion from 2009 to 2014.

The future looks bleaker since an expected 3-foot rise in the sea levels will most likely plunge could displace a significant portion of the population.

And to add insult to injury Bangladesh is not even a responsible for this global change. It only contributes about 0.3% of the global emissions.

But that hasn’t stopped the government’s efforts to push for cleaner fuel to decelerate the effects of climate change. I say ‘decelerate’ and not

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By Nasirra Ahsan ‘completely halt’ climate change because that would be naivety on my part. The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) hopes to produce ethanol from some of the grains the country produces such as broken rice and molasses. Ethanol, with its benefits of being easily producible and usage of locally produced grains are a boon for countries looking to reduce their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and excess of grain production. In fact, according to growthenergy.org, a website representing the producers and supporters of ethanol in USA, ethanol reduces GHG emissions by 59% relative to gasoline.

However, I must reiterate the part of excess grain production. Our country is a net importer of grains and a move towards producing ethanol has been termed as ‘suicidal’ by Moshiur Rahman, who convenes the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Coordination Committee. Currently Bangladesh only produces half of the maize it requires while importing the rest from USA and Brazil. Similarly, we also import molasses and rice. A rise in the demand for these grains means a direct impact on the food prices which we all know will disproportionately affect the poor and the lower middle class income groups.

With such a heinous impact on food security and

C L I M AT E C H A N G E A N D F O O D S E C U R I T Y WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

BANGLADESH IS ALREADY ON THE PRECIPICE OF BEING THE WORST AFFLICTED REGION DUE TO THE IRREVOCABLE CHANGE TO ITS FOOD PRODUCTION CAPACITY. prices, does ‘going green’ really add value to the life our citizens? Food security is a major issue of climate change with an absolute impact on for key areas: food availability, food access, food utilization and food stability.

Bangladesh is already on the precipice of being the worst afflicted region due to the irrevocable change to its food production capacity. Agriculture plays a vital role in the economy by accounting for 20% of the GDP and 65% of the labor force according to World Bank reports. But environmental degradation poses the risk of detracting all forms of economic benefit. Severe environmental degradation, due to population pressure on marginal lands will eventually lead to a fall in productivity in food production and per capita production.

To make matters worse, the cultivation of marginal lands is largely done by lower income groups; a group who can least afford to bear the losses of producing in these low quality land. Thus overuse and changes in resource quality place further pressures on the scarce land and water resources thus further confirming the lives of these people to the vicious circle of poverty.

1 Food security: It's not only about production, The Daily Star, February 04, 2016 2 Same as 1

Bangladesh’s Vision 2021 and the consequent Perspective Plan aims to achieve complete food sufficiency for the population by 2021. In addition to this, the global community along with Bangladesh have adopted the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), or SDG 2, which aims to “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture” by 2030.

But while the GoB has gamely made promises of adapting the SDGs, policy decisions needs to be revised to ensure that we achieve our SDG’s with the same speed and effectiveness that we had for the Millennium Development Goals.

To start with, we need to address the financial incapability of the poor farmers. The government already had policies and programs in place which extends agriculture credit to farmers, but more often than not, it is the farmers with who already have large land who benefits from this. Furthermore, ‘almost 30% of the households do not own any land and another 30% own only up to half an acre.’1 Overhauling the existing land ownership related policies is another factor which can significantly change things for the better. ‘Tenancy farming is order of the day. People who own land largely don't do farming while people who don't own land mostly do the job as lessees’2. The end result of this is growing income disparity between the two groups in the rural regions and the social evils which follows when income disparity exists.

Another reason for growing food insecurity is the discrepancy between high food demand and limited choice scenario. Resources such as land are scarce while food demand continues to rise with the rising population rates. This also mean greater demand for housing, roads and industries which are simply taking away the farming lands.

But government has tried to be proactive with their environmental

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C L I M AT E C H A N G E A N D F O O D S E C U R I T Y WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

policies. In 2009, Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) was created which added to the country's list of climate related interventions through effective policies and projects. The BCCSAP is a 10-year program which is dedicated to building the readiness of the systems to confront the aftermaths of climate change. ‘In order to cope with the threats to food security, efforts have been concentrated on community-level adaptation, agricultural technological extension, surveillance systems installation to track patterns of weather, pests and diseases, and sanitation program implementation (BCCSAP, 2009)’3 However, here is the problem with BCCSAP. Almost nine years into its existence, no efforts have been made to upgrade its disaster management system. Given that this program looks into the problem of food security for Bangladesh, that is indeed a worrying thought.

Nonetheless, not all is lost just yet.

Bangladesh has made great strides in achieving its MDG’s and with proper policy implementation, investing in technology and quick thinking we can hopefully do the same with the SDG’s.

For instance, ‘in 2013, Asian Development Bank (ADB) inaugurated a $2.5 million experimental program

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public grain storage system. Most farmers do not have access to proper storage facilities which forces them to trade their entire harvest in bulk, leaving none for selling or consumption during disastrous times.

‘Currently, grain storage capacity provided by the Bangladesh Government is 1.62 million tons, provided mainly through conventional granaries and warehouses where the typical shelf-life of grain is less than 1 year.’5 Climate change, bad neighbors or poor governance: who are we to blame for all natural calamities?

Perhaps, we should stop with the finger pointing and start coming up with solutions to better equip our citizens to fight these catastrophes.

Government also needs to have cohesive relief plan for the victims which would act as some form of safety net for them. Frequent update of government disaster management policies is also advisable. And for all of us who are safe (till now) in our comfortable homes, maybe we should loosen our purse and heart strings and reach out to those who needs it the most.

ANOTHER REASON FOR GROWING FOOD INSECURITY IS THE DISCREPANCY BETWEEN HIGH FOOD DEMAND AND LIMITED CHOICE SCENARIO. RESOURCES SUCH AS LAND ARE SCARCE WHILE FOOD DEMAND CONTINUES TO RISE WITH THE RISING POPULATION RATES. to introduce crop insurance to Bangladeshi farmers. Supported by the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Bangladesh government - will design and carry out the trial of WIBCI (Weather Index Based Crop Insurance) aimed at the small and destitute farmers who are at the most danger of losing everything to hostile environmental factors.’4 The insurance would enable a farmer to retrieve remuneration from the insurer when calamities occur. This form of safeguard would enable farmers to plan and save for long term despite their harvests being destroyed by tumultuous weather.

One other way is to deal with the food shortage would be to scale up the

3 Climate Change and Food Security, The Daily Star, February 26, 2017 4 Proposed Grant Assistance People’s Republic of Bangladesh: Pilot Project on Weather Index-Based Crop Insurance, ADB, March 2013 5 mfsp.gov.bd/project.php

interview

We have more than 5000 volunteers around the country who are working for an inclusive and just society What is the vision of your organization?

To create a world where persons with disabilities can live without any discrimination and they are given the opportunity to realize and explore their true potential.

You are working with the youths of Bangladesh.

What sort of potential do you see in them?

Among the 1.8 billion youth in the world, Bangladesh has 47.6 million young people. This is 30% of the total 160 million people in Bangladesh who are in-between the 10-24 age group, and if we consider an age group from 10-35 then more than 50% of people fall within the youth. Also, we know that 15% of this group of youth is persons with disabilities.

I am lucky enough that I have been able to work closely with this powerful group of young leaders as the president of my organization. We have more than 5000 volunteers around the country who are working for an inclusive and just society. I have been blessed to be able to observe their dedication for the country, enthusiasm for community service, creativity to generate new ideas, and passion to solve social problems and rebuild the nation. However, senior citizens and policy makers tend to not give much value to the opinions of these youth.

You were in the USA for a one year fellowship.

What did you learn during this time?

In September, 2015, I received the prestigious Emerging Global Leaders Initiative - Atlas Corps Fellowship designed by the U.S. Department of State. It gave me a yearlong opportunity to serve there at the leading non-profits in the field of disability and human development, as well as to participate in the Global

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Leadership lab by Deloitte and to talk at conferences held at the UN Headquarters, Harvard University, Washington DC, etc. My focus was learning the history of the US disability rights movement and approaches to promote the concept of inclusion. While I was learning, I became familiarized with American public affairs and human service issues. It helped me to get the comparative knowledge between Bangladesh and America in terms of policy and practices for the persons with disabilities. Working with the culturally diverse people and exchanging views on global development from people by visiting 18 different states was a significant achievement for me while I was in the States.

What made you want to work with disabled people?

Back in 2006, I attended university as the first member of my extended family. In 2008, I started assisting Barkat, a disabled student from my department; his life struggles gave me a new vision. I launched Physically-challenged Development Foundation (PDF) aiming to unlock the potential of disabled students by removing the social stigma attached towards the people with disabilities.

We dreamt to change the society and I believe that change must first start from within. So in 2011, by marrying someone with a disability, I realized how important PDF’s mission was. Through my wife, I became more emotionally attached with the cause than ever before. If I had not married this excellent and wonderful woman that is now my wife, my life and movement would be meaningless in regards to understanding the significance of PDF’s task from the inside deeply and developing my passion accordingly.

I N T E R V I E W MIZANUR RAHMAN KIRON

The Physically-challenged Development Foundation (PDF) is a national youth-led organization whose membership comprises of youth with and without disabilities between the ages of 16-35. It aims to improve the quality of life among youth with disabilities by facilitating their personal development and promoting their full involvement in all physical and social environmental matters. It seeks to promote the concept of an "inclusive society" through and by youth who do not have disabilities. The organization was founded by Mizanur Rahman Kiron who was recently named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 - Asia - Social Entrepreneurs list. ICE Business Times caught up with him to find out about how his endeavor is changing lives.

MIZANUR RAHMAN KIRON

Founder and President Physically-challenged Development Foundation (PDF)

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I N T E R V I E W MIZANUR RAHMAN KIRON

practicing empathy so that we can create an inclusive Bangladesh for our next generation. Considering our success so far, we have reached almost all the universities in Bangladesh but we still have a long way to go inside the colleges, schools and local youth-led groups.

What are the main challenges for our youth?

For the youth to utilise their minds and talent, they must have the platform to use those. In order to do this, they should get involved and keep themselves busy by pursuing their passions in helping others. The problem is that they are not being allowed this opportunity, thus society is failing to be benefited from them.

There are many challenges, namely there are very few safe platforms to nurture their creativities, and few mentors to extract their potential and an insufficient institutes to motivate and guide them to grow.

Who served as an inspiration for you in this line of work?

I had an opportunity to work with Dr. Valerie Ann Taylor, the pioneer of the disability inclusion movement in Bangladesh. I have learned from her how much unused potential is within persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, I had to observe a shocking fact, which was that while Valerie’s initiative supported thousands of people with disabilities by motivating them to re-start their life, whenever those people went back to their own community, the same people behaved with them differently, in a completely unacceptable manner. I saw people come back to her crying because our society had such a negative perspective towards the people with disabilities.

I am not the type of person to sit and accept this reality. I was committed to support Valerie in fulfilling her dream to build an inclusive society. I knew the sacrifices that she had made in the last 40 years of her life, and this actually inspired me to start working professionally in the disability and development sector.

My goal is to reach 50 % of the total population of Bangladesh whose age range is 10-35 years. We dream to build a positive mindset and promote

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What is your future plan?

MY GOAL IS TO REACH 50 % OF THE TOTAL POPULATION OF BANGLADESH WHOSE AGE RANGE IS 10-35 YEARS. WE DREAM TO BUILD A POSITIVE MINDSET AND PROMOTE PRACTICING EMPATHY SO THAT WE CAN CREATE AN INCLUSIVE BANGLADESH FOR OUR NEXT GENERATION.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) mentioned in its report that 50% of the world’s job opportunities will be in South Asian countries by 2050. But a limited number of disabled youth are qualified to receive any of those jobs.

On the other side, our corporate world is quite positive in disability inclusion however officials are lacking in the basic concepts of disability law and regulations, as well as knowledge of appropriate wording and mannerisms towards them. Also, some myths and facts of disabilities act as obstacles to hiring potential, hardworking candidates with disabilities. In order to bridge this gap between the job seekers and givers, we will launch the PDF Institute of Professionals from 2018.

Beside the regular activities of PDF, it will build 21st century skills among the disabled youth and improve the working situation in corporate and governmental institutions for persons with disabilities.

BPO Industry

Capitalizing on the Dynamics of Service Value Chain Globalization

By M. Rokonuzzman, PhD After creating enormous success stories in India and Philippine, the outsourcing of call center services has started to decline. Once, the progression of technology had helped such services to migrate from advanced economies to developing countries. However, further progression in that area is now enabling the software agents to take over these jobs. Does it mean that the high-paid job opportunities offered to the large student population of developing countries like Bangladesh through service globalization are heading towards the end? The question remains that in this era of outsourcing, what makes Bangladesh lack behind where previously, countries like India and Philippines have already seen success?

Technological progress has eliminated the barriers between people living in the remote areas and work processes to quite an extent.

Such development has also contributed to the globalization of work processes, often termed as service value chain

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globalization or Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).

During such transformations, certain work processes performed by human resources are often being taken over by technology. As a result, geographic redistribution of work along with the reallocation of job roles between humans and technology also takes place.

For example, the expansion of international telecommunication circuits led to the globalization of call center services which transferred such service jobs from advanced countries to developing ones. On the other hand, the further development of technology has opened the opportunity of transferring such roles from remote service providers (call center agents) to software agents.

However, that does not necessarily mean that the opportunity in service globalization is rapidly being eaten up by intelligent machines. Technological advancement is also opening the opportunities for globalization for many other work processes. For

instance, it was previously an unthinkable option to create a linkage between older adults living in the remote areas and health services. Now technologies such as smart sensors, semi-autonomous assistive devices, or affordable augmented reality technologies have opened the possibilities of connecting the aging population of advanced economies like Japan or Western Europe to millions of potential remote care providers of Bangladesh as well as many other developing countries. Such translations are creating far greater global service opportunities than contact center jobs which are being transferred to machines from humans.

ITC (International Trade Center) has mentioned that the share of the developing countries in the world service export rose from 11% in 1990 to around 30% in 2010. This was aided by the increasing technological sophistication which led them to shift from the more traditional Transport and Tourism sectors to IT and

other Commercial Services (business services). Service off-shoring activities accounted for $252 billion in export revenues in 2010 and employed 4 million people globally; UNCTAD's 2012 World Investment Report points out that foreign direct investment in the service sector reached $570 billion in 2011.

According to the World Bank database, commercial service export (other than travel and transportation) has increased from little over $1500 billion in 2000 to more than $4000 billion in 2011. Despite this growth potential, the share of the developing countries in world service export is still only 30% as very few of these countries are taking advantage of new opportunities that would arise from specializing in the export of services.

Although low cost, low latency and high capacity broadband connections have created tremendous opportunities, Bangladesh is still failing to take substantial advantage by scaling up the piloted success of more than 200 export oriented software firms, IT service companies, ITES, and BPO organizations. On the other hand, among success stories, Philippines has succeeded in creating $18

billion BPO revenue while generating a million jobs.

Moreover, the reason behind the failure of scaling up these 200 firms must be addressed and worked upon to unlock Bangladesh's potential. There are several reasons behind such failures. One of them being the demand driven expansion strategy of the local firms. These firms have insufficient access to risk capital. Moreover, the capacity in managing the risk of these businesses is also very limited, and they tend to serve small overseas clients. In serving small work orders of many small clients, Bangladeshi firms failed to benefit from reuse of digital assets, learning curve benefit, and economies of scale as well as scope. As a result, the cost of delivery of these firms is high which reduces the profit margin—limiting the ability of expansion using profit.

The decoupling of humans in getting the work done with the support of machines has been occurring and is expected to keep progressing further.

Advances in automation, low latency connectivity, and the Internet of Things (IOT) is opening the possibilities of connecting millions of Bangladeshis to operate robots in advanced

economies, to perform $8/hour routine work in an unpredictable environment.

No robot is intelligent enough to carry out these tasks. The Avatar Economy may have far reaching opportunities, but the bottom line is that globalization of service value chain is opening tremendous opportunities for the world as a whole, and Bangladesh in particular. The combination of technology and globalization will have a profound impact on the way we'll work in the future. The globalization of work by connecting people from anywhere in the world to work processes by low latency connectivity and sensor rich semi-autonomous machines are being influenced by five major forces: 1. Technological development 2. Globalization 3. Demographic changes 4. Social trends 5. Low carbon development The application of humans in getting job done can now be accessed seamlessly, anywhere and everywhere,

as the costs of communication and coordination have dropped to almost zero. There are several driving forces behind this mass virtualization of work. The first one being the cost, as it's the fastest way to have more efficient operations.

The second reason is counterintuitive, yet more profound. Communications and coÂŹordination and the information revolution emerging from social networks, tele-presence and mobility are enabling new levels of collaboration, changing the way we deploy technology, where and how we work and how the organization itself is structured.

To benefit from such expanding opportunities of service or work process globalization, instead of following the success stories, we should prepare ourselves to be at the right place at the right time with right capacity for capitalizing the unfolding opportunities. Instead of waiting to replicate the success stories, we should monitor and step in to lead the process of creating success stories. It should be noted that once an emerging

opportunity takes off, leaders capitalize on the scale, scope and learning curve advantage to become cost effective and better producers, sometimes by engaging more expensive human resources than what new entrants may have access to. In the past, Bangladesh's strategy of following leaders to capitalize on the service globalization strategy at the matured stage, whether it’s the call center industry or IT services, has failed because of this. It's time to monitor, predict and manage the risks of entering a target industry segment to capitalize on the dynamic opportunity before it takes off. Such a strategy has the potential to connect a portion of 40 million students to the rapidly globalizing services and work process value chains to create an industry, which is mostly unimaginable to many of us at this stage.

The writer is an academic, researcher and activist. He currently works as the Dean of the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences and as a Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North South University. He can be reached at zaman.rokon.bd@gmail.com.

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Housing and Construction Housing is one of the crucial elements among the five basic needs for human life. In a developing country like Bangladesh, housing has become a challenge for people as the result of galloping increase in population, fast pace of urbanization and steep rise in the price of land, building materials and labor.

In order to meet the rising demand of housing for middle-income and lower middle income groups in the country, amid environmental concern raised due to extensive use of hazardous construction materials like burnt clay bricks, low-cost, sustainable, disaster resilient, environment and agriculture friendly alternative building materials would be the timely solutions, many housing experts think.

They observe that alternative building materials nowadays are crucial as agricultural top soil is being used largely in manufacturing conventional bricks which is a direct threat to the country’s food security.

Moreover, experts have said that manufacturing conventional clay brick needs huge amount of fuel that releases a huge amount of carbon dioxide in the air leaving the environment and human health in stake.

According to Housing and Building Research Institute’s (HBRI) assessment, about 2,500 crore pieces of burnt clay bricks are produced from six crore tons of top soil annually in the country. The assessment found that more than 50 lac tons of coal and 30 lac tons of wood are used as fuel at brick kilns every year.

Experts measure that burning bricks release approximately 1.5 crore tons of carbon in the air annually. According to the experts, Bangladesh loses 1% of agricultural land annually due to top soil cutting. Reflecting on the concern of global warming and environmental pollution, the Government of Bangladesh is now

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Another Brick in the Wall ?

By Sobhan Sadiq

planning to reduce the use of biomass and fossil materials as fuel. It has also endorsed the importance of developed technology on agriculture and environment friendly building materials in the 7th Five Year Plan.

The obvious question is what would be the substitutes of burnt clay brick that will be portable as well as tough, durable, weather resistant and an economically viable construction material.

Based on scientific publications, reports and research studies

HOUSING

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CONSTRUCTION

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carried out in abroad and by it self, HBRI considers a number of alternatives of burnt clay bricks.

HBRI officials think that the alternative building materials are also applicable for rural housing culture as they observe that transforming the non-concrete households to concrete buildings is not the obvious solution to reduce household damages in disaster.

Engineer Mohammad Abu Sadeque, Director of HBRI mentions that three factors need to be considered while projecting the ‘life cycle cost’ of housing. ”These include initial capital cost of construction, the recurring cost of maintenance and repair and the period of its economic service life,“ he says.

ACCORDING TO HOUSING AND BUILDING RESEARCH INSTITUTE’S (HBRI) ASSESSMENT, ABOUT 2,500 CRORE PIECES OF BURNT CLAY BRICKS ARE PRODUCED FROM SIX CRORE TONS OF TOP SOIL ANNUALLY IN THE COUNTRY.

A senior research officer of HBRI, Md. Akhter Hossain Sarker, also the Project Director of Exploration and Development of Alternative to Bricks, informs that the institute has introduced some cost effective and alternative building styles like reusable prefabricated houses and reassembled prefabricated houses with ferro-cement folded plate roofing, stilt houses etc that are disaster resilient.

The HBRI has also explored Ferro-cement channel, light-weight aerated concrete, block, panel, tiles and “Jute Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite’ that can be used for durable and rust-free roofing,” Sarker adds. Ferro-cement is a concrete composite made by river-dredged soil, Portland cement, Sylhet Sand and galvanized wire mash. ”HBRI has innovated floating houses made of ferro-cement and polymer aggregated light weight concrete blocks and the housing technique is applicable in the river-erosion and flood prone areas,“ Sarker says.

These are the initiatives to save topsoil of the arable lands and best alternatives to hazardous brick

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A N O T H E R B R I C K I N T H E WA L L ?

kilns as the techniques are developed through natural curing rather than autoclaved curing.

Some of the HBRI improvised sun-burnt bricks are, Compatible Stabilized Earth Block, Concrete Solid or Hollow Block, Aerated Concrete Block, Sandwich Panel, Poly Block and Thermal Block. They are getting attention from the policy makers, researchers and private builders, according to HBRI officials.

They say that Hollow Concrete Block masonry can safely withstand the atmospheric action and it requires no protective covering. These blocks have good insulating properties

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against sound, heat and dampness.

“The presence of a rough surface on concrete blocks provides good bonding of mortar and plaster.

Concrete Block homes are better in withstanding hurricanes, tornados and earthquakes with the help of steel reinforcement,” says Sarker. ”It has been proven to be and effective building material and it is widely used in developing countries for high rise buildings due to its advantageous properties such as light weight, sound and heat insulation,“ stated Sarker.

According to him, Sandwich wall panel is one type of Ferro-cement wall where Expanded Poly Styrene is placed in between the layers of wire mash and mortar and is casted on both side of the EPS. He further adds that the sandwich wall is environment friendly and now is being produce in Bangladesh. A sandwich wall panel is easy to manufacture, it is more durable and cost effective as well as earthquake resilient construction material compared to conventional brick masonry

wall, he says.

Polymer brick - a composition of sand, cement and EPS filler will be a partial substitution of conventional aggregates. This material will be relatively energy efficient, as the filler polymer used in the composition is highly thermal and sound insulator.

Sarker says that the Thermal block made of EPS and sand-cement mortar is a form of brick that can be used as an alternative to conventional clay brick to infill materials in frame structure buildings.

According to HBRI officials, private entrepreneurs are paying interest in investing in the alternative building materials amid challenges as the idea is still not popular. They add that a number of entrepreneurs have already inked deals with HBRI to exchange and flourish the technologies among the public and private builders.

Md. Mizan Uzzaman, Chief of Multiple Light Bricks, is amongst one of the investors who came forward two years back to make popular the environment friendly concretes in the country. Mizan owns facilities at Boliarpur Bus Stand next to Amin Bazar in Savar, where 6,000 pieces of Autoclayed Aerated Concrete could be produced per day. He believes that the light bricks are suitable for external walls. ”Builders could try the durable alternative building materials in their projects as the technologies reduce construction budget as well as stakes in polluting environment.” Mizan opines.

Citing strict implementation of ‘Mandatory Jute Packaging Act’formulated to reduce use of polythene bag in food packaging, Mizan believes that the commercial uses of the agriculture and environment concretes would be expanded if the government enacted laws and policies binding the public-private builders of inducing the low-cost substitutes into their construction projects.

Inside Out

By Sheahan Nasir Bhuiyan

Blockchain and our future

lockchain technology is somewhat like the internet when it first came about. It was really difficult to understand for the layman and yet had the potential to change the world.

Similarly, blockchain technology has the potential to change the way we exchange digital and physical goods, information, and online platforms. The good news is that like the internet, you don’t have to understand how it works to derive its benefits. But to make the most of the technology, it could be highly beneficial to find out how it works.

A single proper definition for blockchain technology is quite difficult to come up with as the technology is still quite new and is always evolving. It encompasses a multitude of technologies which can be implemented according to a particular objective. According to Assistant Professor Christian Catalini of MIT Sloan, an expert in blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies, “At a high level, blockchain technology allows a network of computers to agree at regular intervals on the actual state of a distributed ledger. Such ledgers can contain different types of shared data, such as transaction records, attributes of transactions, credentials, or other pieces of information. The ledger is often secured through a smart mix of cryptography and game theory and does not require trusted nodes like traditional networks. This is what allows Bitcoin to transfer value across the globe without resorting to traditional intermediaries such as banks.”

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PHOTO BY ROHIT TANDON ON UNSPLASH

A SIMPLE LOOK AT BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY AND HOW IT COULD CHANGE THE WAY WE LIVE

DELOITTE HAS EXPLAINED IT MORE SIMPLY: You (a "node") have a file of transactions on your computer (a "ledger"). Two government accountants (let's call them "miners") have the same file on theirs (so it’s "distributed").

As you make a transaction, your computer sends an e-mail to each accountant to inform them. Each accountant rushes to be the first to check whether you can afford it (and be paid their salary "Bitcoins"). The first to check and validate hits “REPLY ALL,” attaching their logic for verifying the transaction ("Proof of Work"). If the other accountant agrees, everyone updates their file.

Blockchains record any kind of transactions in a chronological order and once recorded, cannot be manipulated. Clusters of transactions are stored in blocks which are then chained to one another, hence the term “blockchain”. The transactions can be private or anonymous, depending on how the technology is used.

One of the biggest advantages of using blockchains is the reduction in the costs of transactions. Every organization and business can make substantial savings by incorporating blockchain technology in their dealings. Each transaction requires a verification which is not always easy. An organization may be well acquainted with its clients, partners, and customers through years of interacting with them. But eventually, there will come a time when a problem arises, which may require an audit to sort out. Auditing is a very costly procedure. Not just monetary, but in terms of time as well. Resources diverted towards auditing could have been spent on more profitable endeavors.

Blockchains eliminate the need for auditing. If a transaction needs to be verified on a blockchain, the organization can

WITH THESE ADVANTAGES, MOST EXPERTS ON THE SUBJECT MATTER BELIEVE THAT BLOCKCHAINS CAN DISRUPT EVERY INDUSTRY OUT THERE, JUST LIKE THE INTERNET DID. HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES:

always go back to the records at no extra cost. This is the very reason cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are gaining traction recently. It is possible to transfer money from one part of the world to another at almost zero transaction cost, with the ability to be verified at a moment’s notice. Intermediaries like banks or even PayPal are not required anymore.

In the longer term, blockchains can reduce the cost of running secure networks. Although experts like Mr. Catalini believe the technology is at least a decade away, he believes it will disrupt online transactions even further. Mr. Catalini foresees a future where blockchain technology coupled with cryptotokens can eliminate intermediaries like Uber or Airbnb which still charges customers a rent for using their services. With further developments in this technology, customers and service providers can exchange tokens directly using a highly secure network.

Blockchain can increase privacy options for individuals and businesses. In elementary terms, bartenders only need to verify age before serving. However, a driver’s license or a passport reveals much more than just a person’s age including your address, your blood type, and much more.

Similarly, in a business transaction, all both parties require is to know whether their partners are reliable and trustworthy. But in today’s model, they have to reveal so much information just to prove their trustworthiness.

Blockchain would eliminate the need to provide private information by incorporating a model where individual attributes can be verified as true or false, using a decentralized structure, but the information does not constantly have to be out there. Think of it as an Uber score or an Airbnb score, but instead, it will be one rating which applies across all transactions.

CENTRAL BANKS: The central banks in Singapore, Canada, and the UK are exploring options to incorporate cryptocurrencies in their transactions. Adopting cryptocurrencies will allow central banks to lower settlement risk, more efficient taxation, faster cross-border payments, interbank payments, and novel approaches to quantitative easing.

FINANCE: This sector has seen the most applications of blockchain till now. Financial institutions are creating a faster and more efficient financial infrastructure which is capable of tracking and exchanging financial assets of any type.

MONEY TRANSFER: Transferring money between individuals could become extremely fast and costless in the near future. Digital wallets allow for the transfer of tokens using blockchain technology anywhere in the world. These tokens can then be exchanged for fiat cash (regular money) at various online exchanges.

MICROPAYMENTS: Blockchain enables micro transactions to take place for a minimal cost. For example, people do not have to pay a subscription for a newspaper but pay just for the articles they read. Freelance workers such as editors, or writers can also be paid for their work. The blockchain would verify the legitimacy of both parties and enable cheap transactions. A company called Brave is already attempting this.

PROVENANCE AND OWNERSHIP: Physical properties can be recorded on a blockchain to ensure authenticity and prevent fraud or counterfeiting. EverLedger, a company based in London, is using this technology to record and track the movements of diamonds. They are also expanding their services to include fine wine in their records.

AIRLINES: The current model of purchasing and obtaining airline tickets are vastly inefficient and can increase the risks. Often, it could take up to 45 days for the cash to reach the airlines from the moment a customer pays for, exposing the airlines to a prolonged period of risk. The money may travel through multiple locations before eventually reaching the airline. The airline incurs a lot of transactional costs which is passed on to customers. A blockchain technology can bring down the payment time from 45 days to 45 minutes. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is considering developing their own cryptocurrency to make the process more efficient and less risky.

The opportunities with blockchain technology are endless. As more of its functions are developed, we are likely to see even more novel innovations. But this technology will not hit the mainstream for at least another ten years according to experts. It is still in its infancy and like all technologies in the modern world, are vulnerable. There are a few instances of blockchains being used for nefarious activities, the most prominent of which is the use of bitcoins to facilitate the drug exchange Silk Road. If an entirely private network is developed, it could even lead to funding terrorism in a totally anonymous manner. On the other hand, the same privacy options can be used to protect people’s health records and prevent instances of healthcare breaches which occurred earlier this year.

There is still a long way to go, but there are no doubts that if used correctly, blockchains have the potential to change our lives for the better.

THE WRITER IS A DEPUTY MANAGER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AT BRAC INTERNATIONAL. HE CAN BE REACHED AT SHEAHAN.BHUIYAN@BRAC.NET

www.ibtbd.net

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Different Perspective

The Undergraduate CEO By Farhat Chowdhury Zishan

Is it too early to start your own business?

With Bangladesh propelling towards becoming a middle-income economy and the integration of technology in almost every sector imaginable – we are living in the era of endless opportunities.

Bangladeshi companies are thriving beyond borders as well, and many new ideas are taking shape into reality. Amidst all this glory and positive energy, what if you’re a student still pursuing your university degree? What if you are absolutely sure that you have an idea that can change the entire country? What if the inner entrepreneur in you is dying to come out of your cocoon? Do you take the leap of faith? Or do you graduate, take a job, gain experience, grow your network and then ‘safely’ start pursuing your dream after a decade?

Well, the latter is definitely a less risky option, but in case you belong to the first group, the following tips might come in handy for your upcoming entrepreneurial crusade:

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1. Form a liaison with your faculty members – The teachers that take your courses every semester might be your biggest source of help at the moment. Not only do they possess immense knowledge across various disciplines, but many are former corporate personnel. Thus, you get a mixture of both experience and academics in your armament to carve your business idea to perfection. And there are even times when faculty members introduce you to other students that he/she thinks you can collaborate with; helping you to find several potential co-founders for your business.

2. Get in touch with your alumni – Often we run across our seniors and instead of just a casual interaction, reach out to the ones that you are close with. Tell them about your idea, try to get some meaningful feedback and let them hook you up with industry experts or any other resource that you might need. Alumni or seniors often have this sense of belonging to their alma mater and helping a fellow junior out is often an emotional journey for them.

Hence, the amount of effort or passion that they will have in lending you a hand might surprise you!

3. Be a networking ‘spider’ – The secret to turning your idea into a fully functioning business lies in the fundamentals – knowing the right people. Robert Kiyosaki, a renowned American businessman, often used to say - “The richest people in the world look for and build networks. Everyone else looks for a job”. Knowing who can help you with which piece of your puzzle is vital. And the platform to get acquainted with these individuals? Your university itself!

There are countless seminars, workshops, business competitions taking place nowadays. Hop in, find your target and strike up an interesting conversation. Someone might even be interested in funding your business, you never know!

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4. Seek help from your friends – One great thing about starting your business in your university days is the ability to have all your skilled friends at your fingertips. And to make things much better, most of them have plenty of spare time and would love to put their hammers in action. You have a diverse group of friends bringing an equally diverse set of skill sets to your business. And it’s way cheaper than a ‘formal hire.' Need a brand identity plan for your startup? Treat your graphic designer friend on a fast-food joint and voila!

5. Utilize the ‘Buzz’ – You are practically part of the most vibrant community in the country. You have plenty of people eager to try your new product/service out and give you honest feedback. And besides, it’s comparatively much easier to get the word out. If your business luckily involves the student community or has anything to do with them, news about it will spread like wildfire.

Your benefit? Unimaginable business growth with negligible marketing effort.

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6. Easier to ‘cold call’ industry experts – Now this is a two-faced cannon. The upside is that you use your entrepreneurial charm to baffle a CEO and make him realize the potential of your business. Or the downside - his receptionist might not respond to your phone call. But as Jay-Z puts it, “Gotta fake it till you make it.”

7. No external pressures –You’re in your 20s, your energy level is at its peak, and you have the whole world in front of you, waiting to be explored. You’re still not tied down to a rigid family life, and so, there is room for trial and error in your ventures. Besides, better to fail now than later, right? Do you want to fail and lose a million dollars right when your son will need his college tuition or do you want to fail now, learn from your mistakes and recuperate? Now is time to put your ideas to the test and filter out that one idea that hits the perfect note. Drew Houston, the CEO of Dropbox had a famous saying that fits beautifully in this scenario – “Don’t worry about failure, you only have to be right once.”

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YOU’RE IN YOUR 20S, YOUR ENERGY LEVEL IS AT ITS PEAK, AND YOU HAVE THE WHOLE WORLD IN FRONT OF YOU, WAITING TO BE EXPLORED.”

Keeping global examples like Snapchat and Facebook aside, there are several businesses in our very own country that had started when the founders were of your age and were students just like you.

Take Maverick Studios or Singularity Interactive for example; or even Robi 10 Minute School. The odds were not in their favor. But did they give up on their ideas? No, they went out there, persevered and slowly turned their ideas into reality! So you see, it’s not going to be easy to start your own business while juggling university courses. But if you can make efficient use of the resources available, you just might be able to make a miracle happen. Yes, this will entail a lot of hard work, failure, emotional breakdowns – but doesn’t every cloud have a silver lining? Pour in all your effort, and there will be a time when your peers will be busy seeking job interviews while you will be out on your own, aiming for the stars with your own startup.

CSR

By S.M.Nazmul Ahsan Sarup

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rees contribute to the environment by providing oxygen, improving air quality, enriching the climate, conserving water, preserving soil and supporting wildlife. During the process of photosynthesis, trees take in carbon dioxide and produce the oxygen we breathe. In the last few decades, the number of forests and bio-diversities have been dwindling due to extreme urbanization and industrialization. However, with growing economic development and global consciousness towards nature, global leaders are once again moving forward to save the environment through plantations.

With the aim to neutralize the carbon footprint and to conserve nature, Epyllion Group organized an event named "Prakritir Chobi Aki" in collaboration with the Department of Environment (DoE) and Green Savers Association in observing the World Environment Day 2015. After getting an intensive hype from the participants and the organizing bodies, Epyllion Group decided to move forward with this idea. With Green Savers Association, Epyllion Group started the "Sailor Green Savers Plant for Planet" program. Starting with Viqarunnissa Noon School & College in 2015, this program has covered 19 other schools during the 2015-2017 sessions.

With the motto of, "Painting. Planting. Recycling", Epyllion Group reuses the empty chemical drums from its textile division through this program.

All the empty chemical drums are collected from the textile sector and are then cleaned and sent to the Green Savers. This non-profit organization then gives these drums a white coating and makes them ready to be painted on. Students from class eight to ten paint these drums in a group and make planters for their schools.

All the plants for this program are selected from the local genre of plants.

Both the organizing partners keep the schools under a monitoring program to make sure that the plants are alive and in a healthy condition.

Replacement and nourishment programs are also executed to keep these plants alive.

This program has collaborated with 19 schools with a further involvement of more than 2000 direct exposures and 5000 indirect exposures through

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Plant for Planet social and print media. This initiative aims to achieve three key results, one of which is recycling of waste chemical drums. Schools students are encouraged in conserving nature and tree plantation. This program also ensures that the educational institutions of Dhaka, where the plantation is rarely seen due to the scarcity of open space, get a place

With the motto of, "Painting. Planting. Recycling", Epyllion Group reuses the empty chemical drums from its textile division through this program.

All the empty chemical drums are collected from the textile sector and are then cleaned and sent to the Green Savers. rooftop gardening.

With this plantation program, Epyllion Group envisions to promote a green environment inside the majority of educational institutions in Dhaka city. Thus, it will not be long when all the schools are reached out to for the "Plant for Planet" project by 2020.

The writer is the Manager of CSR at Epyllion Group.

www.ibtbd.net

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Beyond the Business

Spaced Out on Simulations

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hen we are allowed to live out our fantasies without consequences, they eventually blur the realities of our real lives.

HBO’s Westworld merges the innovation of virtual reality with the classic western.

Westworld is your atypical futuristic amusement park that allows visitors to explore their every fantasy in a western world through robot host. However, as time progresses these artificial robots develop an incipient

By Shaikh Ashfaque Zaman

consciousness, altering the dynamics of a reality that humans seek to have sole control over.

Boasting a star cast of Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, Thandie Newton, and Sir Anthony Hopkins, the sheer star power of Westworld is enough to capture audiences. Nevertheless, the show is supported by an intense, action gripping script, disturbing concept, and excellent writing.

The most grappling aspect of the entire show

is how it seamlessly merges the classical western narratives with futuristic robots that result from a dystopian corporate structure.

Westworld also highlights the abuse of power that humans experience when they are given too much of it. The mannerism, exploitation and constant rewiring of the robots are somewhat metaphoric to the hypothetical limits that civilization will come to when given the opportunity.

Many may look at Westworld and think that it is a future that is not their concern. Contrary to popular belief, the virtual reality market is expanding at an exponential rate, and our addictions to mobile devices are playing a key role. Even apps like Tinder are providing a virtual dating experience to enhance the accessibility of their services.

North America is leading the way by taking just less than a quarter of the $403 million in revenue in 2016. The market is expected to grow to $1 billion in 2017, shifting to Asia as the primary market with 45% of the revenue. According to research from SuperData, the truly astonishing phenomenon that is virtual reality will grow 20 folds from 2016 to 2020 and become a $38 billion dollar industry. It leaves one questioning, are we going to solve the problems that will plague us in the future or will we just create a reality that allows us to escape it?

Weighing in on Westworld: 5 Reasons Why it’s Worth the Binge If you’re looking for a few days of staying in during this holiday weekend, the HBO hit is the ideal companion.

3. Attention to Aesthetics Though the show is set in vastly different worlds; the cinematographers have managed to capture both with meticulous detail. The virtual reality amusement park is nothing of a trip to the old south while behind the scenes, it is a mechanical concrete fortress.

4. Plots and Possibilities When repercussions are non-existent the story lines are endless. While viewers feel a sense of remorse for the robots, one also has to understand that their realities change everyday, leaving each character’s future in uncertainty.

5. Maestro Makings Ramin Djawadi, who also works on the score for Game of Thrones, composes the musical score of the show. Ramin flawlessly takes contemporary songs and arranges them in the tradition of the Western style piano. This not only enhances the Western theme, it subtly reminds viewers of the modern setting.

WORLDWIDE VIRTUAL REALITY REVENUE

BY SEGMENT

$9.4B

$13.6B $4.1B

Consumer software/services Hardware

$17.8B

$4.9B $1.8B $0.3B $1.5B

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$1.3B

$19.9B

$23.4B

1. Visions or Video Games The show depicts a reality where reality and the video game world merge into a disturbing reality. It’s quite difficult to draw the lines between the fantasy park and just how much of the world it has taken over.

2. Heinous Human A vast majority of shows depict a future reality in which robots take over and destroy all that is left of peace. Westworld flips this concept and illustrates the power of man when he is left to his own devices without any thought of the consequences.

$37.7B

$14.0B $9.5B

$3.6B

2017 2018

2019 2020 SOURCE : WWW.SUPERDATARESEARCH.COM

Beyond the Business

THE APP WHICH MAKES LIFE EASIER

By Tahmid Hasan ‘IFTTT is a platform that helps you do more with all your apps and devices’- says the app website. IFTTT is an internet-based service that enables users to create simple apps that activate when certain conditions are met. IFTTT was first declared in 2010, and in 2011 it was launched as a web service. In less than a year over one million Applets and Services had been created, which prompted the release of an IFTTT mobile app on iOS in 2013 and Android a year later. Since then IFTTT has continued to grow, adding new IoT integrations and partnerships that execute an easy task when tapped.

IFTTT co-founder Linden Tibbets explains it as a service which “helps people make simple connections between anything on the Internet.” So using an IFTTT ‘applet’ or service you can automate the things on the internet. The automation ranges from simple events such as syncing Facebook photo uploads to Google Drive or iOS Albums, to more difficult ones that allows to set the temperature of thermostat using Google Home or Amazon Echo.

What the applets do is basically bring all your apps and devices together to give you a better experience Now the Internet of Things is an idea, rather than some service. It simply means everything that can be connected to the internet, will be connected. Anything that has an on and off switch and Wi-Fi facility can be associated to the internet. The range of devices can differ from our desired smart phones to coffee production equipment to our headphones and earphones. Now, IFTTT affects anyone who uses IoT devices at home or on the road as well those who use tech to execute repetitive tasks. The easiest way to portray IFTTT is as a personal computerization platform where users create "Applets" that can carry out simple "If This Then That" statements. Applets can be manually formed or can be chosen from collections designed for vehicles, small business, weather, shopping, and the like.

Users work with IFTTT mainly through its mobile app, but featured applets can be turned on and off on the IFTTT website. IFTTT doesn't only use applets. It also has services that are direct integrations with third-party devices and data, like Phillips Hue, Gmail, Twitter, Amazon Alexa, GE, and a bunch of other software platforms and IoT hardware. IFTTT allows people with no programming knowledge to make use of cutting-edge technology to make life easier.

IFTTT's litheness, which enables it to computerize easy tasks and manage an array of IoT devices, makes it an amazing choice for personal and business use. IFTTT with its data access project has made it easy to get information from sources like U.S Securities and Exchange Communication, Library of Congress, Environmental Protection Agency etc. Using the specific IFTTT applet the smart thermostat can be turned into a camera. If

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you ever forget to lock your home the particular IFTTT applet will automatically ensure that your home is locked when you go out of your home Wifi coverage. Want to wake up to a perfect sunrise?

There’s a specific IFTTT applet which can work with the modular light panels and which come as triangles that can be aligned however you please. Pick a time and the panels will gradually recreate the sensation of the sun rising to crackle you out of bed. Even if it's really mid-afternoon. If you want to welcome each day with burst of energy, why not have your flat do the same thing? If you have a Fitbit and Philips Hue lights, there’s one applet which can be used to trigger your lights when you roll out of bed. Well IFTTT has innumerable features which we never knew existed and it helps to bridge the gap between various smart home gadgets.

You don't need to have a smart home or IoT-wired office to start using IFTTT, all you need is a web browser or a smart phone and the desire to simplify how you interact with technology. You can sign up at the IFTTT website, where you can also enable Applets and Services. You can also find IFTTT on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. From there it's a few simple clicks or taps to an automated life.

Tech

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Having grown up in a country where piracy has remained the reigning norm for decades in every discernible industry – be it films, music or software – I have seen enough to say with confidence that our nation owes piracy a great deal. It is safe to say that we would not have come where we are if pirated software and entertainment did not exist so openly in the local market.

Almost every computer in Bangladesh runs a pirated copy of some version of Windows with great aplomb. Microsoft Office is ubiquitously available, as is Adobe’s entire gamut of productivity packages, which would cost thousands of dollars if obtained legally. If you go to buy a new computer, the vendor only asks which version of Windows you want on it, and nonchalantly installs it off a well-worn disk image, and throws in a share of popular software, games and music on the second hard drive partition to boot – all without asking you to pay an extra cent.

None of the original creators of said software and content get even a cent out of this.

Does this make us a race of thieves? The question of ethics regarding piracy is a debate best left for another day, but its impact on our lives is a sure one.

Piracy has enabled countless people of our nation to have access to facets of modern technology and entertainment that would otherwise have indefinitely remained off-limits to us. They and their very lives have been shaped by piracy in a myriad of ways. For example, every graphic

DOES PIRACY DESTROY INDUSTRIES OR SUSTAIN THEM?

Blessed

By Piracy?

By Abhijit Asad designer in our country has had access to a variety of high-end professional design tools from the infancy of their careers that most people in developed nations can’t even dream of until making a good bit of headway into their professional lives, not even with subscription-based models. This goes on to apply to all other pirated content, be it software or entertainment features. The dream of a digital Bangladesh would have been far away from our reach had it not been for piracy.

And now, in the advanced age of the internet, piracy is easier than ever. There are massive hubs dedicated to piracy on the web – entire forums devoted to sharing pirated software and contents, BitTorrent databases that are veritable archives of theft-worthy digital content, innocuous-looking blog sites laden with regularly updated links of pirated content (and also countless strains of malware awaiting careless wanderers). Piracy isn’t restricted to just computer programs either – even apps for mobile phones and tablets see a massive degree of illegal distribution, and the option of jailbreaking means that not even closed platforms like Apple’s iOS can prevent privacy from taking place.

Console games have also faced a large amount of piracy for several generations through unauthorized hardware modification of consoles which rendered them capable of running illegally obtained copies of games which would be rejected by unmodified hardware. The rising popularity of e-books ensures that literature is not spared from piracy either, and it is a common practice even in developed nations for financially challenged students to download illegal copies of expensive textbooks – or maybe even the next new Dan Brown novel.

The battle against privacy has endured as long as piracy itself.

Attempts to get users to verify the legitimacy of their software through the entry of serial numbers and verification codes continue to remain commonplace. Many modern programs (especially games) often go the extra mile by forcing an online verification of their legitimacy on a periodic or per-run basis, and refusing to flat-out run if an internet connection is not detected. Many programs also come loaded with some form of DRM (digital rights management) mechanism integrated into them in order to stave off attempts at illegal duplication.

The sheer talent and tenacity of software pirates, however, is not something to be underestimated, as it has been proven over and over again.

Many pirates are highly skilled programmers and hackers capable of dissecting software code on a deep level and discovering exploits which can be used to ‘fool’ the software into recognizing itself as legitimate, foregoing any online or offline verification, or disabling the time limitations of fully functional trial versions of certain programs. Over the past few years, a complex new DRM system called Denuvo was baked into many programs, particularly games, to prevent them from being illegally distributed. It took the pirates longer than usual to break through it, and many developers made bold claims in the meantime about its uncrackable nature. However, once Denuvo was torn apart, the tables turned rapidly.

It is interesting to note that pirates have no particular philosophy to abide by. Some hackers crack software to show off the might of their formidable coding skills, some do it for fun, and some do it because they believe all software should be free, and everyone should have access to all software.

However, it is not at all uncommon for pirates to often leave little notes along with their cracked programs (or films,

books, etc.) which politely ask the downloader, “If you like this, please consider buying it and supporting the developer.” While this may sound inherently bizarre and hypocritical, it is indeed interesting to note how many people actually follow this advice. In fact, many people download pirated software or entertainment content to check if it is worth buying – almost like an illegal demonstration of its abilities and/or qualities in a way, which is not always readily available.

I personally know a good number of people who have downloaded pirated copies of games and ended up liking them so much that they bought the legitimate versions afterward as a form of gratitude. In a fascinating turn of events, many developers have actively taken to shunning DRM measures and releasing their software without any antipiracy protection whatsoever. According to CD Projekt RED, the developer of the massively popular Witcher series of video games, the best way to beat piracy is to create something even pirates would want to pay for. The incredible popularity of the best-selling Witcher series, which is proudly shipped DRM-free, is a bold testament to this statement.

It should also be noted that many people who download pirated software or content have no intention of buying any of them in the first place anyway, so their actions do not necessarily hurt potential sales, them being not part of the content’s target demographic. Unlike the theft of a physical object, piracy of software or content merely involves duplication and dissemination of the product instead of it being misappropriated and taken away from others.

Furthermore, if someone intends to buy the product and support its creators, they would do so regardless of whether they try it out first in pirated form or not. There surely are many people who would readily pirate something only because they don’t want to spend money on it (despite being capable of doing so), but they do not comprise the market on their own.

If anything, piracy has allowed software and other digital content to penetrate entirely new demographics which they would otherwise not even come across. In a glorious turn of events, many developers are studying patterns of piracy around the world,

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H and actively working to decrease the prices of their creations to make them more affordable for people in said markets, so that they can legitimately own the programs and enjoy official support and updates. For example, the online software distribution platform Steam prices its wares much lower for Russian and Indian markets, which are far rifer with piracy, and as a result, this unprecedentedly generous move allows them to enjoy a great degree of sales in markets that are now warming up to the use of genuine software. Some developers even consider piracy to be a form of free advertising, and even encourage people to pirate their releases and spread them far and wide, while requesting them to buy the titles if they wish to. It works surprisingly well.

Ultimately, how digital piracy should be handled remains the choice of the individual developer. However, a comparison about this should put this matter further into context. When the world-renowned American thrash metal band Metallica discovered that the content-sharing platform Napster was facilitating illegal distribution of its songs, it sued Napster and caused it to shut down, but that did not keep its songs from being pirated anyway, as pirates simply moved on to more decentralized platforms such as BitTorrent over time. On the other hand, when British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden learned about the piracy of their music, instead of retaliating with fruitless legal action or DRM measures, they carefully studied where such piracy took place the most and scheduled live concert tours of said locations, including the likes of Chile and India. This not only allowed them to earn the respect and love of their fans but also brought in considerable amounts of revenue from these previously untapped markets. It is quite clear from this and other similar observations that the carrot works much better than the stick when dealing with pirates, and it can go on to spell win-win situations for everyone involved far more easily than one would believe to be possible.

HAPPENING

Word of mouth

JCI Dhaka Cosmopolitan Organizes the Global Goals Event on SDG 3 JCI Dhaka Cosmopolitan organized the Global Goals Event on SDG 3: Health and Wellbeing; an inspiring and insightful session conducted

by Dr. Kazi Shabbir Anwar (Pediatric Ophthalmologist)

on "Protecting Eyesight of Your Children" on 04.08.2017 in Dhaka.

He delivered a very informative and awaking lecture on the common eye problems of children and

their symptoms and treatments. The event was chaired by Local Vice President, Farah Jabeen who efficiently organized the event.

The distinguished guests present in the event were the JCI Bangladesh Advisors Waqar Choudhury, Nessar Maksud Khan, Data Magfur and Mostafizur Rahaman Sohel, 2017 JCI Bangladesh President Ahmed A. Rahman, 2017 JCI Bangladesh Secretary General Irfan Islam along with other JCI Bangladesh National Governing Body Members and JCI Dhaka Cosmopolitan Executive Committee members including 2017 Local President Barrister Shahedul Azam and IPLP, Arman Ahmed Khan.

Unitrend Limited and ICE Business Times to initiate ‘Future Biz’

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nitrend Limited recently partnered with ICE Business Times to promote the initiative ‘Future Biz.’ ‘Future Biz’ is an initiative of Unitrend Limited. The objective of this initiative is to create a vibrant and exciting platform for aspiring business and corporate professionals aiming to create and nurture a strong and diverse base of future business leaders for the

community.

A signing ceremony between both the organizations was held on August 23, 2017 at ICE Business Times office, Dhaka in this regard. Taslim Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer of Unitrend Limited and Tawhidur Rashid, Managing Editor, ICE Business Times signed the agreement on behalf of the respective organizations.

The synergy between Unitrend and ICE Business Times will provide numerous benefits to corporate businesses and professionals of Bangladesh.

Since the magazines are sent to different corporate houses and young professionals, it will be able to reach its target audience to guide them in better managing their own business.

W O R D

O F

M O U T H

H A P P E N I N G

Mastercard in partnership with EBL has launched a co-branded First Titanium Grocery Credit Card in Bangladesh for Shwapno customers. The card comes with a number of exciting features – cardholders are eligible to 2.5% cash voucher on monthly shopping. Additionally, cardholders will get Shwapno loyalty points which can be redeemed at any Shwapno outlet as well

Diamond World organized a gala function to celebrate their 12th anniversary

A New Hangout Zone for Food Lovers at “Lake City Restaurant & Party Centre”

by Concord Group has been opened officially at the 300 feet wide road

Radission Blu Chittagong Bay View, being an ambassador of the port city, invites you to enjoy authentic Chittagonian Mezbaan.

Radission Blu Chittagong is equipped with facilities to make the Mezbaan experience pleasant for different groups starting from small size of 20 to large invitation of thousands.

For booking please contact to +880 1777701123-30 or email to sales.chittagong@radisson.com

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Capital Market

BOURSE UPDATE

Fortnightly Report of DSE, 16th July To 31th July 2017

Disclaimer: Dhaka Stock Exchange does not hold any responsibility for these date.

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Fortnightly Report of DSE, 1st August To 13th August 2017

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Source: Dhaka Stock Exchange