Bangladesh surpasses India and Pakistan

Bangladesh, accustomed to the slowness of tricycles, wants 2022 to be the year of its big leap forward. After overtaking India in per capita income just a few months ago, the country hopes to further accelerate its growth with the completion of several major infrastructure projects. See the first line of the Dhaka metro, the capital of traffic jams, or its first Russian-made nuclear power plant. In addition to a kilometer bridge over the mighty Padma or a tunnel under the Chittagong river, in both cases, at the hands of Chinese construction companies.

Despite which, relations have never been better with India, which is relaunching rail connections that have been dormant for many decades. .

Having just turned fifty years of existence, Bangladesh dreams of leaving behind its catastrophic image. Of origin, since, in 1971, her painful delivery gave rise to a new type of world event: Charity mega-concerts by music stars. In that case, the “Concert for Bangladesh” by George Harrison, Ravi Shankar and their friends. The Bengalis have surpassed the country from which they broke away, Pakistan, in most parameters for years. But beating India, their defender at the time, has been the icing on the cake.

The work of Bengalis – and especially Bengalis women – has lifted the country out of the quagmire. Twenty-five million people have managed to leave misery behind in two decades. An achievement achieved thanks to its own economic and social model, in which the industry employs 31% of the workers and expects to reach 40% by the end of the decade.

The commitment to textiles has pulled the country out of the quagmire: it already surpasses neighboring India in per capita income

These political priorities were preceded by the dissemination of good practices by NGOs from all over the world world, which came to represent 7% of the economy and today represent barely 2%. The Bengalis, fond of fish like few others, learned to fish.

Despite the numerous natural calamities and the no less frequent man-made shocks -from assassinations to coups-Bangladesh has consolidated a democracy with more abuses of power and corruption than India, but at the same time with a a clearer commitment to improving the parameters of human development and the creation of jobs. While India destroys industrial employment, Bangladesh creates it. While Indian merchandise exports have been stagnant for years, those of Bangladesh are growing at 15% per year.

Likewise, the country's relative success will force its economy to take a qualitative leap, since it will lose the tariff exemption enjoyed by the poorest countries in the EU (where 60% of its exports go). or in USA.

Although 80% of Bangladesh's export earnings come from clothing, there are beginning to be signs of diversification. Last year, its software and computer services firms exceeded one billion dollars in exports. To this income must be added the remittances from its emigrants, who make up the sixth largest diaspora in the world and the eighth that sends the most money.

Bangladesh was born in 1971 at the end of a traumatic war to gain independence from Pakistan

With the bridge over the Padma –name of the Ganges as it passes through Bangladesh- China will Give to Calcutta. While the Chittagong tunnel will bring the second city closer to the extreme south of the country – where hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas are crowded – and the Burmese border.

Recently, moreover, Bangladesh has become the only country in the world that has been ruled longer by women than by men. The stark battle between the two "sultanas" of Bengali politics, Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, who took turns in power for two decades, ended long ago with the definitive victory of the former, more friendly to India and less to Islamism. Zia is now in the hospital, fighting for her life, having spent time in jail.

In any case, the importance of women in Bengali society is a cultural fact, which distances them, for example, from Punjab machismo. The dominance of women in factories has also placed the rate of female labor participation well above the standards of India or Pakistan. Bengalis study longer, marry later and have two children on average, well below Pakistanis. While life expectancy is already close to 73 years.

Indeed, Bangladesh, despite its 165 million inhabitants, is a much more homogeneous country, linguistically, culturally and religiously, than its neighbours. With a more than 90% Muslim population, it has turned its back on extremism. And its size makes it more apt to be able to ask for or render accounts. But we must not forget that he was born so malnourished that there was no poorer country, except present-day Burkina Faso.

With 165 million people (90% Muslim), Bangladesh has turned its back on extremism

Now it is growing like few others and maintaining good relations with everyone. But without the sweat of the heroines of this story, who are textile workers, almost always in precarious conditions and intensive hours, nothing would have been possible.