Our resources
Md. Umran Bin Kamran Chowdhury, Gulshan 2, Dhaka
Bangladesh has been blessed with abundant resources. Not only are they natural but they are human resources as well. The whole nation is sitting on treasure chest. It is a blessing few nations have and many dream of. The country is virtually floating on natural gas; there is coal and perhaps oil. Our labour gives us tremendous potential to make an industrial revolution. Our land is a platform for a green revolution. The beauty and history of places such as Cox's Bazaar, the hill tracts, Mainamati and Paharpur give us the potential to make our country a tourist hotspot. We should remember that this is a fast changing world. Bangladesh is between SAARC and ASEAN. The Asian Development Bank says that Bangladesh can become an Asian transport hub. Thus such resources make it attractive to the rest of the world particularly the big economic powers. God has given us so many gifts, but we have failed so far to utilise any one of them effectively. Natural gas alone can make us a fortune. Energy hungry India is our neighbour. China, probably the next superpower, is to our north. The pre-conceived notion of exporting gas will be a theft is ridiculous. If not export, we can use it to produce fertiliser and electricity, which can also be exported. Coal can be used to produce electricity and I am sure we are all aware of what oil can bring to us. But the current state of our society and of course our politics make it difficult of fulfil a dream of opening this treasure chest. Plus this gives the outsiders a chance to come in and take it all away. It is a great irony that the treasure is lost and Bangladesh is plagued with poverty and corruption.
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