Don't drive the hujur away

I spent a considerable amount of my early teen days to cook up compelling and innovative stories to keep Lokman Hujur at bay. Awful I thought were those days when Hujur used to show up in lazy, hot, humid afternoons to teach me the Quran and how to pray properly. Lokman Hujur had a legacy of giving 'sohi koran shikkha' to many of my cousins, uncles etc. who, along with me, had spent some quality time in mugging up basic excerpts (suraas) to manage day to day prayer requirements. I also remember during my 16th birthday, my late Nanabhai presented me a blue-cover 'Shohoj Arbi Shikkha' (Easy Arabic Learning) language learning book fresh from New Market. He was my inspiration and mentor to ignite my interest in foreign languages. However, perhaps with one exception that of Arabic. Everytime Lokman Hujur and even Nanabhai used to portray and preach to me Arabic as the language to achieve divine guidance and licence to salvation, my teenage mind used to rebel relentlessly. After all, Hujurs and people who are good in Arabic are stereotyped of belonging to certain school of thoughts, doctrine and even their appearances and activities are also labelled unfortunately not in the intended way always.

I wish Lokman Hujur had made me realize early on that Arabic would turn out to be the 5th most widely spoken language of the world. I wish Nanabhai would have convinced me early on that learning Arabic as a foreign language might have some earthly benefits associated with it too, say a job at UN or somewhere in Dubai...may be my tender mind would have given in to the mere greed of earthly ambitions. Perhaps the desire to attain residential permit of Jannatul Ferdous with my Arabic language skills were too confusing for a teenager to comprehend. So I kept on ignoring their calls, I denied the urge to learn only to read a language like a parrot and understand nothing at all. I didn't see any glamour or element of coolness in learning it, unlike French, which is so well-branded. They arrange parties, they talk about art and culture and they are so happening. But Arabic? Why waste time dosto...molla hobi naki?? That was the thought.

So I look at the top 10 most widely spoken languages of the world now and wonder where does our comparative advantage lie as a nation. If we agree that manpower is single most best natural resource, then what exactly is their skill that sets them apart from the global competition? They are cheap labor perhaps, but does cheap mean good and all round quality too? Why not language? Mandarin, Hindi, English, Spanish, Arabic, Bangla, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, German, French..in that order. Think how many do you speak or understand? Even if you leave Mandarin aside for a while, doesn't it seem that we are pretty much familiar with all top 5 languages other than Spanish? Hindi...due to our neighbourly 'love' and culture vulturization, English is self-explanatory, Arabic due to our Hujurs and Nanabhais and finally Bangla is our mother-tongue and pride. So we are in a pretty good position to attain some sort of language dominance over others it seems.

Having an edge in foreign languages would give our semi-skilled, skilled, export-ready manpower great advantages and preferences in the global market. Alliance Francaise, Goethe Institut, even the reputed foreign language school in Dhaka university, never catered specifically to the need of the manpower market. Its only in the last 5 years that a number of schools have mushroomed around Dhaka city who claim (atleast) that they give certification courses in languages which are spoken in countries where Bangladeshi manpower is exported more often such as Malay for Malaysia, Korean for South Korea etc. No wonder our fellow countrymen learn it the hard way when they actually reach the foreign shores to chase their dollar (or riyal) dreams. With ornamental Bangladeshi diplomatic missions, absence of any legal cover and sub-standard living and working conditions, they also somehow 'manage and adjust' to all learning requirements, learning the host language is a small peanut in the ocean of miseries for them.

Its important to think and look again at what we already possess, rather than nag about things we are never supposed to have, as a nation. If manpower is our strength, proper foreign language training at home will be a small step in equipping them better to settle down in foreign territories. A change of perception at our language expertise and workforce, especially the young, is vital now.

In fine, I am sure that Arabic has its spiritual values and (heavenly) benefits of learning, but for those who oppose the idea for any such notions, the counter-argument (earthly benefit) is atleast worth pondering and considering. So learn any language that is spoken in the target country of business, it opens doors. By the way, please focus on Mandarin too, as I have heard it helps to give useful hints during bargaining with Chinese counterparts, also useful when they swear or say something silly, assuming that we know nothing at all what the ching-chung-chang they are talking about.

The joy of being served tea and biscuits by Jasim

Wonder if you would agree or not, but one of the silent pleasures of working in a company in Bangladesh lies in the privilege of ordering someone else (usually the office tea boy/girl) for a cup of tea or a black coffee and getting served straight at your desk when you must be crunching numbers with your open excel spreadsheet or are about to start that all important meeting with visitors. I always had full respect for these support service staff but never realised the luxury they used to offer us until I started working full time outside the country. I guess we carry the culture from our households where we grew up seeing our houses being cleaned, food being cooked and cars being driven by ‘others’ who were hired or kept to do such jobs only. So naturally when we get into workspaces, we could not get over that hard-coded habit of ‘being served’ the little refreshments of another day at work.

But honestly, would you really expect the same treatment when you are outside Bangladesh? May be you would silently miss that, like I do, but would you actually go to the extent of bringing someone over from Bangladesh to execute the same responsibilities? I did come across Jasim, the ‘imported from Bangladesh’ tea boy, here in London while attending a meeting owned by a British Bangladeshi gentleman. Most of the workplaces here have a kind of ‘serve yourself’ policy in designated kitchens, or you might see your hosts preparing your desired caffeine option before the start of any meeting. But to my surprise when my host ordered for some tea and biscuits to a nicely dressed young man, he jumped to his routine duty of boiling the water and pouring the biscuits on the plates for us. As I was being served by Jasim, I could not help asking my host how could he afford to have the luxury of having a tea boy in west London for such a small company as his. He explained rather proudly that he had brought Jasim from Bangladesh to offer him a better life. I didn’t ask in detail how exactly he could bring him over. No wonder he wears tucked in shirts and nice trousers but still ends up serving tea and biscuit to his Bangladeshi master. The other Bangladeshi staff at the meeting, young graduates from private universities in Dhaka, jokingly informed me that they also sometimes call for Jasim Bhai’s services as that is what the norm is in Bangladesh, so they feel good when there is someone else to serve them tea or coffee at work – it makes them feel important and in control somehow.

So there you go, order some tea to Jasim, sip it hot in cold cold London, feel good and empowered and continue working.

From Sutrapur to Singapur - The rise of the Bua power!

Languages can often become tricky by calling someone something and meaning something entirely different or opposite. The term ‘Bua’ is widely used in Hindi for calling father’s sister (auntie) whereas somehow in Bangladesh, the same relationship is called as ‘fufu’ or ‘pishi’ in Bangla in Bangladesh, whereas the term ‘Bua’ has been somewhat generally been accepted as the salutation for the female domestic workers. May be its beyond the scope of this post that why do we call that special breed of workforce ‘Bua’, as if they are our fathers’ sisters’, whereas the treatment we have been generally handing over to them (exceptions exist) belittles and ridicules the term pretty bluntly.

This blog had been advocating for increased export of Bangladeshi manpower around the world. So the news that Singapore has shown interest to take 45000 female domestic workers came as a very good news, opening up an avenue of diversification in our manpower (or call it peoplepower?) export portfolio. We however don’t want to brand Bangladesh as the country which only exports military personnel in the front lines in the most dangerous war-torn locations not because they have superior military skills and equipments but may be because their lives are cheaper to buy with - in dollar terms. We also don’t want foreigners to get the impression that Bangladeshi manpower is only good for building roads, bridges, malls and keeping the house and wives in order in Arab homes or in South-East Asian economies. It might be true that we are not yet exporting en masse visionary scientists to NASA or IT professionals or investment bankers like some of our neighbours but rest assured that we can take pride in the fact that we are atleast not exporting troublemakers (read terrorists), credit-card fraudsters or sports match fixers to work (in disguise) in foreign territories. Our workforce is generally very timid, vulnerable and very prone to being exploited not only at the hands of foreign agents, but first hand by their local counterparts and offices even before they get onboard a plane. And since the Bangladeshi high commission in almost every country is extremely efficient in keeping good relations with political big-wigs in transit and to keep welfare issues of Bangladeshi workers abroad as much down in the priority list as possible, it becomes all the more challenging for the manpower to cope with difficulties while ‘at work abroad’. Now since the manpower has been diversified into womenpower with the female domestic workers being placed to working in homes in Singapore, some relevant issues pop as a consequence. Food for thought only.

1. When the male workforce are already so much prone to abuse, exploitation and fraud once they are in foreign territories, I wonder how grave it might become with respect to female workforce. So other than setting up language and etiquette training centers to train the female workers before they fly off, it might be a good idea to train them in basic martial arts and self-defence techniques to ward off attacks from home owners (especially Arab and Chinese) who have the potential to unleash physical abuses with the help of nails, hammers, flames, etc. Sarcasm intended regarding the self-defence training, who knows when the female migrant workers might need them!
2. I wonder how the greedy dowry seeking bridegrooms will exploit this situation. Would the rate for dowry be higher for ‘female workers returning from Singapore’? Although financial independence is supposed to liberate the female workforce out of discrimination and poverty, its not always the case in Bangladesh.
3. In any case the there might be a void in the Bua industry in Bangladesh. A large number of female workers hailing from rural areas preferred to take up jobs in numerous garments factories around the country, which seemed to be an obvious option preferred over working as a maid in cities. Now the prospect of a better pay, although as a domestic worker abroad, might even drive more of them away from the kitchens of our homes and garments factories. So far so good for them though.

I remember an essay in high school titled ‘sromer morjada’ (Dignity of labor). I wonder if we were the only country in the world writing pages after pages dignifying every piece of labour by anybody. Whereas the invisible classifications we create in our society based on what people do is a real contradiction and plain hypocrisy. Some people in the West call them ‘nanny’, some ‘governess’, we call them ‘female domestic workers’ or simply – Bua. However it would be worth acknowledging atleast that these Buas would now contribute to the healthy foreign remittance for the country. It is to our own interest to make sure that they can keep doing the same in good health and safe working environment.

Effective Bangladeshi Diaspora network for economic transformation of Bangladesh (The Diaspora Project)

The Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) in Partnership with the Asian Tiger Capital Partners (AT Capital) has initiated a year long project on establishing an effective Bangladeshi Diaspora network for economic transformation of Bangladesh (The Diaspora Project). The project purpose is ‘To identify the impact of Bangladeshi Diaspora in Economic transformation and leveraging its Diaspora in terms of knowledge and skills transfers and improving its global commercial interface. To establish an effective Diaspora Knowledge Network (DKN) of the British Citizen with Bangladeshi origins.’ The DKN aims to provide various online tools which will: (click read more)

• Help the non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) to source and identify the skills and expertise they need from the network;
• Facilitate online communications with other NRBs globally; Submit proposals / issues which other NRBs can contribute and assist, depending on their level of skills and interest;
• Promote successful NRBs on a monthly basis from the network and provide a short profile on the website; and
• Leverage on the NRB network by sharing consultancy projects and other issues in Bangladesh that requires professionals’ advice and guidance which can be received from the vast knowledge network.

Seems to be a good initiative to channel back the good experiences, expertise gathered on foreign soil back to the roots. You can download the form to join from here, download Mr. Ifty's presentation here and the strategy document here.


I attended one of these events in London last week arranged by the bobNetwork and I was priveleged enough to have taken a short phone interview of Mr. Ifty Islam earlier today. He was asked the following questions and you can hear more about his views in the embedded phonecast.

1. Why do you think NRBs have a role to play in investment opportunities in Bangladesh?
2. What are the exact ways (how exactly) can they do it?
3. Is the role same for all NRBs in all countries or NRBs in some countries have more role to play than those in others?
4. What are the key challenges in Bangladesh now hindering the contribution and involvement of NRBs?
5. Please tell something about your partnership on this project with BEI.
6. What is your opinion on country marketing, do you have any plans for that to promote this project sustainably over the next few years?



Also have a look at his views on the financial sector of Bangladesh here

We hail this effort at the Bangladesh Corporate Blog and express our intentions to spread the word of mouse and word of mouth to make this venture bear fruit for Bangladesh..

image: http://purpleonline.net/June09/CoverStory/1/1.jpg

Strategic migration for Bangladeshi climate refugees

So we have got another great opportunity to get some more funds now! This time its under the guise of the hottest topic on earth--Climate Change. Bangladesh has sought 5 billion US dollars from the developed countries in compensation as an affected country due to climate change caused by global warming. Read here to know more.

I would rather not talk about foreign direct investments or development funds that have been arriving to the country since independence. We all are pretty much aware how much of that inbound foreign currency, grant, aid, fund (whatever you call it) have been channelled to build religious establishments, fill up personal pockets of corrupt politicians and bureaucreats and how much of that have exactly been applied to achieve mass development objectives. I am sure getting fresh funds from developed nations would help to a great extent in building dams for protection against rising sea level or for increased forestation etc. But is it not obvious that its a competition against nature at its worst case? How much fund do we need to stop the fury and whims of mother nature from being unleashed on our naturally vulnerable piece of land?

Certainly the big brothers around and away have contributed a lot to the overall deterioration in the climate change status, but lets not forget the mindless urban planning (or no planning) and lack of environmental laws and their implementation which are any ways so rampant all around Bangladesh. Unless we take care of our own backyard first and foremost, no amount of fund will be able to stop the ever increasing leak in our ship. Moreover, we are not very sure about our captains at helm, its very likely that with these funds to fight climate change, they will fight personal 'poverty' and safeguard their own future...by sending their offsprings to 'safer' locations abroad for study and settlement. To wash off the lifelong accummulated sins, they might however establish a three star mosque or madrasa somewhere in their native village. As they make merry with the fresh funds yet again, the whole country would keep on waking up with unexpected earth-quakes, more frequent thunderstorms, colder and shorter winter and hotter and longer summers. Who cares?


I mentioned something called 'Strategic migration' in one of my earlier posts. A visitor jokingly also argued that what else to expect from a business graduate of strategic management (that is me). I think its time again that we revive this concept and find out how we can link the concept of climate refugees and Bangladeshi export-ready manpower to 'strategic migration'. The claim is simple. We do want free money...as compensation..or fresh funds..whatever you call it. However, I am sick and tired of getting free alms which almost always go down the drain (or personal pockets and fortunes). Let the deal be fair.....we will train our manpower to serve your foreign labor markets, we will take care of all legal and social coverage issues...in return we demand preference in overseas recruitment selection and eventual settlement in foreign territories, provided the incumbent meets criteria set and agreed by host and source countries. The idea is to convert potential climate refugees from burden to skilled workforce and help them get (either local) job assignments in countries which are held culprit for the climate change fiasco. In other words, if a time arises that 5,000 people are displaced due to rising tidal waves in Satkhira district, they need to be labelled formally as 'climate refugees' first. These people are free to move to higher lands or even to capital to seek for security of life and food. They need to be trained and made export ready to countries which are primarily responsible for global warming.However I am aware of the fact that many of our creative countrymen would be up and running to label themselves in unthinkable ways as 'climate refugee's to get a passport out of the sinking delta. I am afraid of our own spoilsports.


However all this sounds a bit like fairytale and as if I am on drugs right? Well, atleast no more fairytales from politicians. Lets plan something which is sustainable and linked to local context. Instead of being wary of a half sunk Bangladesh and 150 million plus people crammed in the northern highlands of the country, lets think of ways how we can ride the right wave to strategically migrate some semi-skilled, skilled climate refugees outside Bangladesh.

Bailing out Bangladeshi businesses

Abdullah A. Dewan writes

THE Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the country's prime foreign currency earner, has made the following bailout proposals at a press conference on March 16.
• Rescheduling of 3 and 5yrs term loans to 7 and 10yrs term loans;
• Lowering interest rate from 15% to 7%;
• Withdrawing VAT from readymade garment (RMG) sector;
• Subsidizing diesel for RMG, like the farm sector;
• Cash pay-off to stay competitive.

Last Sunday, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) proposed a Tk 6,000 crore rescue package for the export businesses. It included a Tk 3,300-3,500 crore bailout plan for the RMG exporters. The Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) demanded a 10% cash incentive for knitwear exporters.
The BGMEA chief Salam Murshedy asked for an additional Tk 10 against every dollar of 30% total export value. In addition, he urged the government to ask banks to reschedule BGMEA outstanding loans by at least 10 years and slash the bank interest rate to 7%.

Murshedy pleaded that these measures would help BGMEA members withstand the global recession-driven demand slack culminating in declining exports, which reached 17.58% in February. To justify the demand for bailout, Murshedy said that three major buyers of Bangladesh's RMG products, including UK-based Woolworth, went bankrupt recently. To promote exports in the present global downturn, BGMEA plans to promote RMG products in old markets and some potential export destinations. This seems to be the prudent approach to fight the recession-demand slack. FBCCI, BGMEA, and BKMEA's (the troika) plea for bailout money is no different from tax payers' subsidy to the RMG sector. The US and other governments have already started doing that through tax payers' part ownership of the businesses receiving bailout money until they stand on their own. (For example, 80% of AIG shares are owned by tax payers.) Asking banks to reschedule loan terms may endanger cash and income flow of the banking sector, putting healthy banks at risks of insolvency and requiring them to ask for bailout money later. That's a dangerous route to take. Besides, why should government persuade banks? It is the businesses' that need to make such a move.

Businesses should always discuss with their bank whether additional emergency funding is available. The medium and long-term plans should form part of any dialogue. Timely communication with the bank is important as bank managers and financiers who are aware of the problems are likely to come to their rescue. Following the US example, what the government can do is subsidize some portion of the interest if the banks are willing to lower the interest on existing loans for a limited time period. Since some of the foreign retail clients have gone bankrupt it won't be easy to achieve the previously targeted $14 billion goal of RMG exports. So, in the process, some of the weaker factories won't survive. Hence, proving them bailout money would be tantamount to knowingly buying the failing businesses with tax payers' money.

Reducing VAT is a possible option but that will be equivalent to subsidy because, to make up for the lost tax revenues, the government must resort to deficit financing. Subsidizing gas to the RMG sector is similar to reducing VAT. The worst proposal is "cash incentive," which literally means "print money and give it to us." However, the troika may ask the government to initiate guaranteed financial schemes to help viable businesses with provisional cash flow predicaments.
By any measure of economic rationality, the troika is asking for too much -- in essence, nothing is left out -- which can be interpreted as an attempt to run businesses with tax payers' financing. Just because these businesses earn foreign exchange do not make them any different from other businesses, which also generate domestic employment and income and contribute to GDP.
What about the expatriates who used to remit dollars and now are unemployed, and returned home empty handed and broken hearted? Why not some bailout money for them in the form of unemployment benefits?

In order for the government to inject bailout money or stimulus spending in infrastructure building, it must first take money out of the economy through new taxation or borrowing. Infusion of bailout money has a negative effect on the economy, and the worse if the recipient businesses fail to survive. The inflation created from deficit spending will hurt the poor consumers and the public servants living on fixed incomes. Any bailout money must be distributed in a transparent manner with proper accountability. The criterion must be the viability of the specific RMG factory concerned -- not who owns the factory. The global recession may be used as gambit by many powerful and well connected factory owners, including some lawmakers, to cash in their ailing business with tax payers money.

In the US, businesses and banks that received bailout money have squandered hundreds of millions in paying bonuses and partying in luxury resort hotels in the name of promoting businesses. Why would the business people in Bangladesh be any different?

Dr. Abdullah A. Dewan is Professor of Economics at Eastern Michigan University.

New markets for Bangladeshi people power!

No matter how much you laugh at me, but somehow I could not get over this term which became very fond of since last year. Its called ‘strategic migration’. The term was mentioned in one of the posts here in this blog and one of the visitors jokingly commented on that as well, saying that ‘what else to expect from an MBA with a strategic management major (which is me)’. Nevertheless, my hopes are rekindled again seeing that government is rethinking their strategy to export Bangladeshi manpower to new markets.


I always dreamt of sending packs of Bangladeshi manpower to vast empty lands of Russia. I always wondered how unfair it is that a country like Russia has such a vast amount of land with such a low population comparing to Bangladesh. And, why should we remain squeezed back to back against each other in the largest delta of the world, but which is still one of the smallest countries of the world. So we should be the first to recognize that our natural biggest comparative advantage as a nation is our manpower. The more we train them, the more we export them, the better it is. It will not only help the country to get more remittances, but it will also make sure that we just have enough people in the country that it can accommodate, environmentally, socially speaking.

Also, we should explore how this term 'manpower' can be effectively changed to 'people power', so that equal number of Bangladeshi women can be trained and sent to countries with proper jobs which might fit their skills, cultural and social orientations etc.

I hope to live to that day when Bangladeshi manpower and Bangladeshis will have imprinted their footmark in almost every country of the world, pretty much like the Chinese or even more like the Indians I suppose. Lets come out of our homes, conquer new territories with our merit and culture. Lets leave a mark.


image : http://www.virsagi.com/images/manpower_supply_01.jpg