Poverty hurts. To begin with, and
needless to emphasise, it hurts the poor most.
It also hurts a nation and its image. It hurts
market growth, business development and general
well-being. Poverty reduction, again, needless
to emphasise, benefits all. That a quarter of
the world’s people remain abjectly poor suggests
that this message has yet to fully sink in.
Business must help spread this message.
Becoming concerned with the increasing skewness
in development and growing poverty levels, the
United Nations and its associated organizations
designated poverty reduction as the keystone of
its Millennium Development Goals (MDG). In broad
terms, this goal envisages the halving of
poverty levels between 1990 and 2015. That
meeting this goal is on the slow track almost
everywhere suggests many things. Poor governance
in the least developed nations and unbridled
greed of its ruling elite are two of them but,
more importantly, it highlights the developed
world’s inability to keep its promises.
In the overall context of the MDG, Bangladesh
has done reasonably well. However, on the
poverty reduction track the pace needs to be
improved. The recently accepted Policy Reduction
Strategy Paper is a sound roadmap in this
direction. It will help matters significantly if
public-private participation is considered the
lynchpin of the exercise. In present times and
circumstance, it is quite clear, that neither
the government nor the private sector can go it
alone. Partnership is the answer.
Biman is in the news. It is going through
difficult times. With the Haj season around the
corner, Biman finds itself in a corner. Its
inability to meet its liabilities in time,
striking employees, and disgruntled customers
are symptomatic of growing malaise. Most
airlines in the developing world have been
through such a phase. In South Asia, Air India
and PIA are cases in point. They were turned
around. That Biman continues to fly with a good
safety record speaks of its intrinsic strength
and gives us hope. Our Special Report is an
in-depth look at the airline, and why we believe
there are better times around the corner.
Neo G Mendes.
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