Bangladesh: The best product with the worst marketing - Part Two

January 18, 2022

The story of building Innovative Bangladesh 2041 will be the story of branding the half full Bangladesh and completing the half empty Bangladesh

MEHEDI HASAN/DHAKA TRIBUNE

Anir Chowdhury is a US techpreneur turned Bangladeshi govpreneur serving as the Policy Advisor of a2i in ICT Division and Cabinet Division supported by UNDP.

The Blog was first published in The Dhaka Tribune Click here to read the original publication.

When development economists are asked how the non-resident Bangladeshis or NRBs have contributed to the development of Bangladesh, their answer usually mentions only the blue-collar expatriate Bangladeshi workers who send tens of billions of dollars in remittance every year. The number has kept rising in recent years  despite the fact that our average worker makes a fraction of the earnings of an average expatriate worker from Sri Lanka, India, or Nepal. 

Surprisingly, the number keeps rising even though the pandemic caused massive job losses for our diaspora brothers and sisters around the world, hitting nearly $25 billion in fiscal year 2020-2021. It is because they send every riyal, ringgit, dirham, pound, and dollar they earn, keeping the bare minimum for themselves to eke out an existence in their host countries. So, indeed, the economists are right when they say the blue-collar NRBs contribute to the economic development of Bangladesh.

However, it is rather unfortunate that the economists never mention the contribution made by the white-collar NRB professionals, save perhaps an anecdote here and a story there. The economists cannot provide concrete information because anecdotes and stories do not cumulatively provide the required data for it to be statistically significant.

This is a shame, for if the question were reversed, and if you were to ask any NRB professional -- especially in technology, engineering, research, and recently finance -- living in any of the hundred countries around the world, how they want to contribute to their home country Bangladesh, the unequivocal answer would be that they want to get engaged, be it through their skills, experience, or money.

And they have! How many private universities were fueled by NRB talent and academic prowess?

How many banks, quick rental power plants and ecotourism sites benefitted from NRB investment?

How many NRBs contributed to designing and architecting mega structures in Bangladesh including the very visible Padma Bridge and Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant?

How many IT companies were set up directly or indirectly by leveraging NRB experience from the more mature global IT industry, by profiting from their connections around the world and by training the local talent? How many IT projects were outsourced to Bangladesh in the last 20 years by the NRBs? How many export dollars were earned?

How many NRB researchers contributed to scientific research by collaborating with the local researchers? Jute genome sequence comes at the tip of our tongue but there are numerous examples that we know, and don’t know, in agriculture, public health, water and sanitation, climate change, and what have you.

Why do the NRBs not talk about their own successes and contributions to the development of Bangladesh? Is it because, as a people, we are too self-critical, always talking about the half-empty part of the glass rather than the half-full part?

Or, is it because we just do not know the stories?

It is rather unfortunate that, as India has cultivated an IT export industry with their non-residents that is worth in the hundreds of billions, and China brings in the lion’s share of its FDI from its non-residents, Bangladesh in 2021 is yet to scratch the surface of utilizing its diaspora.

Yet, the time is now to begin to correct this wrong, and it is encouraging to know that we are already making progress on this front. Bangladesh is now more ready than ever before to engage the NRBs in various opportunities across the government, private sector, NGOs, research organizations, and academia. Yet, a concrete and concerted plan of action remains missing. 

From brain drain to brain gain 

Over the years, we have become very familiar with the concept of the “brain drain” where the best and brightest minds of our country cannot wait to leave, to be successful in other nations where their talent and skill are better recognized and utilized. 

Indeed, it is often said that a Bangladeshi’s ultimate ambition is to be able to leave the motherland. In that respect, it is ironic that professional NRBs contribute more to global development rather than the development of Bangladesh.

However, this must change and this can change.

The Bangladesh of 2021 is a very different nation to that of yesteryears, and there are ample opportunities for us to gain back the brains we have lost, hence the term “brain gain” where we invite the NRBs to collaborate with the country and propel it to the next level. From strategizing on potential engagement opportunities, to recognizing and incentivizing their contributions to the country, there exist numerous ways where we are able to successfully implement this brain gain.

In 2018, we started exploring breakthrough strategies from the Prime Minister’s Office to realize the audacious goals for Bangladesh in 2041. Out came a 6-pronged strategy with brain gain as one of the prongs. The story of building Innovative Bangladesh 2041 will be the story of branding the half full Bangladesh and completing the half empty Bangladesh. 

NRBs need to be a significant part of writing and telling this story. Why? Because the NRBs are the nation’s best and most effective mouthpieces in other countries where we need to toot our horns.

Because the NRBs are our ears, eyes, brains and hands in countries where innovation is happening, and we need that knowledge exchange to leapfrog.

And, because if we do not believe in ourselves, who will? If we do not believe now, when?

Lastly, what have we got to lose except for the self-deprecating part of ourselves?