The government's response to such concerns is a bit weird and wobbly. Decisions are taken only to rescind under pressure (for instance onion price). Increased demands for consumer products are being met by import, not through investment to increase productions in firms and factories. Government is saving-savvy and investment- shy. Perhaps that is why we import ten times more than what we export.

The forex reserve is comparatively satisfactory (about $2.7 billion), but barely enough to pull us through three months of import financing. Irrelevant though it is how much we have in the kitty if that does not reproduce or proliferate; the collateral value of it must be used to maximise our national interests. A dollar is just a dollar as long as it sits tight; it is worth millions if it changes hands. Thanks to about five million expatriate workers who are contributing the most to pull this impoverished nation out of a prolonged stagnation perpetuated by decades of misrule and paucity of predictive vision. We must strive to create more employment opportunities abroad, and soon.

Beginning with the early 1980s, import rose to 18 per cent of GDP while export increased to 15 per cent. This may look okay, but in money terms, the deficit constitutes 10 per cent of GDP. Compare this with other Least Developed Countries (LDC), which, as a group, garnered 28 per cent GDP from export and import stood at about 29 per cent. Our trade deficit had hit the galaxy lately (nearly $5 billion, of which $1 billion with India). The economy suffers from non-equilibrium within and without.

Uncertainty is an anathema to investment. There are tertiary and substantive pitfalls that spurred such uncertainties. Chronic political instability, lawlessness, lack of infrastructure and poor research and dynamism are barring us from reaching out the global market. Between 1999-2002, private sector investment dropped from 7.4 per cent to 7.1 per cent of GDP amid caution not to inflate the economy.

Hang on. Don't we know that a seesaw trade off correlates the fibre of inflation and employment? Developing economies' priority must lie in tolerating higher inflation to achieve enhanced growth through investment and job creation. This partly explains why Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) accounts for only 0.50 per cent of our GDP. The FDI showed a virtual free fall (of nearly 60 per cent) in the current fiscal from the 2001-02 benchmark of $304 million.

Politics is all about delivering what is needed individually and collectively. Leaders must be wise to know that they control and manage our national assets and resources; and, we all have a stake in it. Blame globalisation, 9/11, conspiracy, opposition stalwarts, or whatever you will, for failings in governance. But leadership entails much more than blame-gaming. People want leaders to ensure justice, security and opportunities that will enable them to move ahead with rational dreams.

The inflationary fear is unfounded, and it is already higher than that we're led to believe. Take for instance the Chinese economy, which had performed the best in the preceding decade. Between 1990-2001, average inflation in China was 7.1 per cent, in India 8.6 per cent and in Pakistan 9.2 per cent. Bangladesh, amazingly, has had an inflation of 5.1 per cent only during the period. It's even less now. The figure is good for showcasing as an economic sleight of hand, but the recurrent devaluation of the Taka and a sudden surge in prices of essentials belie the existing data on inflation. Our mode of accounting seems riddled with 'dubious figures.'

As the government tries to pull-through the clog, three millions are added to the job market each year, half of them ending up without any employment. This huge army of jobless inflates ranks and files of miscreants to nix rules of law. Then, there are over 100 million still languishing below the poverty line. Their fundamental rights include timely access to employment, health and social welfare. How much is being done to ensure that, and by whom?

Coupled with government's decision to close down a number of public owned industries, opportunities for employment shrank further lately. This will impact negatively upon expected demand generation and growth. The food import spree is hurting the agriculture, which employs over 60 per cent of the 50 million strong workers.

The economy also has an unaccounted for chapter, for kickback constitutes a bulk of our economic transactions. World Bank's Global Competitiveness Report of 2001/02 showed Bangladesh as the lowest among the 75 countries where bribery bottlenecked investment and growth. And, for the third time in a row, the Transparency International said we're the most corrupt nation on earth. With respect to infrastructure, Bangladesh ranks penultimate, just above Bolivia, in a global index of 74 developing nations.

If good governance means fast moving of files; prompt gas, electricity and telephone connections in commercial/ industrial outlets; absence of kickback: befriending of domestic and foreign industrial captains; and ensurance of rules of law; none of it is happening much, despite pre-election promises. Why can't we get these basics sorted out sooner?

Then there is a culture of brain draining that hamstring our ability further as most of our talents had gone abroad and we have little incentive to lure them back. Pakistan decided in 2001 that it would pay its talents nearly the similar amount if they fall back to work for the nation. Almost 90 per cent heeded to the call. Indian public sector too now competes with private sector to stir competitiveness within. Our government recoils to such prospects.

Are we aware that per capita growth pebbles constitute the bedrock of the development highway? This implies that a prosperous nation is built on individual skill and dynamism. The average per capita growth in Bangladesh was 1.2 per cent in the 1990s, against India's 3.5 per cent, Sri Lanka's 3.7 per cent and China's 8.2 per cent. The data changed little since in our case.

A major factor retarding employment and growth is the difficulties a budding entrepreneur faces while accessing finance. Project finance has been, and remains to be, accessible only to an oligopoly of entrepreneurs with partisan political leaning. Over 50 per cent of them are now branded as defaulters. As well, the fruit of whatever was invested does not seem to have chipped into the real economy as yet.

New entrepreneurs are cash starved and dare not approach banks due to the rates of interest exceeding expected returns. Nations raise interest rates to save economies from overheating. We seem unaware that the economy is stymied, not overheated.

Industrialisation is also hostage to, inter alia, shortage of power supply. Despite our power generating capacity having grown three folds over the last two decades (from 1.0 million kilowatts in 1980 to 3.3 million kilowatts), per capita generation reduced further as the population swelled from 85 to 129 millions. In the neighbourhood, per capita electricity generation stands at 0.1 kilowatts in India, 0.12 in Pakistan and 0.21 in China. Our's is 0.03 kilowatts only.

These being facts in hand, one must suspect that something is grossly wrong at the top echelon of our leadership. Hence, to say the government is doing 'good' entails the hazard of being liable of judging the book by its eye-catching multi -coloured cover only. Aside from the issues of governance -- especially the failure to arrest lawlessness and keep the opposition in the parliament -- the economy's 'peculiarity' is particularly worrisome.

Author and columnist M. Shahidul Islam is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.