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‘Domestic-policy dividend’ to Bangladesh-economy

Published : Tuesday, 16 February, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 660

Today's political environment and the efforts in multi-dimension of the administration has made a "booming economy" possible in Bangladesh, which is highly appreciated. Humble thanks go to the leadership for what you do for the interest of Bangladeshi-society we care most.
 
However, before, during and after the Covid 19 crisis, people began to argue about the potential for a significant "domestic-policy dividend" available to Bangladesh-economy. On the issue, a study was undertaken and it examined some possible effects of a permanent reduction of spending for the few agencies, for example, Armed Forces in Bangladesh.  
 
It may begin with by reducing significant numbers of manpower from one agency(s) that poses surplus and then relocate to the agency(s) that needs it most, which can begin with immediately. By so doing, no negative impact will be perceived. It will facilitate addressing today's unwanted issues in society such as rape, robbery and other crimes where transferring is done to Bangladesh law enforcement agency. It will not undermine activities of Bangladesh Armed Forces within country and beyond. But surely the arrangement will facilitate meeting said Agency's needs having adequate manpower in numbers that can ensure effective utilization rather wasting taxpayers' money. With the facilitation of the 21st Century technology, Bangladesh Law Enforcement Agency definitely adheres "prevention is better than detection" and they will endeavour preventing crime with adequate manpower, as proposed.

 
The study shows that, in principle, the present discounted value of the implied dividends from such reduction, in terms of consumption and investment-opportunities could be substantial. Through increased public and private investment, reduced armed-forces' spending implies greater economic growth and hence greater consumption and investment-opportunities in the future. The important economic questions are: a) how can these resources be relocated efficiently to non-armed-forces? b) How can we identify what these usages should be?  The study introduces and discusses economic issues that must be addressed in answering the questions; much further analysis and discussion will clearly be needed before these questions can be answered adequately.  
 
Besides keeping active-participation as Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Forces, the reduction in armed-forces will be large enough to generate a sizeable dividend. Thus, the debate over whether the savings from reduced armed-forces should be used to reduce public deficit or to be used to rebuild the infrastructure for faster economic growth in Bangladesh. On this aspect, we must bear in mind that "if we start building multidimensional rural cooperatives, there'll be no poverty in Bangladesh and the poverty will totally be eradicated", as Honourable PM noted. This is because many communities, especially, residents in rural areas and business-firms are affected by even small reductions in spending for armed forces, however, the "micro" cost of this adjustments will not be ignored in the political decision-making process.  
 
To evaluate society's options, for using the savings from reducing the Armed Forces spending policy-practitioners can address relevant economic issues conducting further scientific studies. In this short-writing, the first issue already discussed, concerns what are the best uses of the dividend. The second issue concerns how to re-channel resources efficiently from their Armed Forces usages to their new highest-valued - Law Enforcement Agency usages.  Some people are advocating establishing public programs for case-by-case basis- for example, in case of Rape Crimes, establishing project(s) such as Rape Prevention and Education Project(s). It will definitely be helpful marginalizing the number of rape cases in Bangladesh.  
 
In case adjustment cost is questioned, the aggregate adjustment cost for any reduction in Armed Forces can be measured by the real value of resources, labour & capital, left idle involuntarily during the transition. For given cut in Armed Forces, the magnitudes of these costs depends on the speed which labour & capital resources can be transformed to meet new demands or for implementing government's relevant policies addressing the issues that have been in society for a while now.  

 Nevertheless, the redistributive effects of reduced Armed Forces spending should not be dismissed as unimportant or irrelevant in choosing how the domestic-policy dividend ultimately will be used. The question of who reaps the gain and who bears the costs of an unanticipated reduction in the Armed Forces spending is an important aspect of the problem and will play an important role in the solution.  

 But temporary transitional costs should not justify abandoning the efforts to reduce the number or amount of resources allocated to the Armed Forces spending or allocating their demanded superficial budgets for so the called "creation of new schools, colleges and what not" there as years to come.
Akim M. Rahman, Ph.D is an Assistant Professor of Economics, Canadian University of Bangladesh










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