Changes and Challenges: A Review of Bangladehs's Development 2000

by Rehman Sobhan (Editor)

The Independent Review of Bangladesh's Development (IRBD) 2000 is the fifth of the series which was launched in 1995 when the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) pioneered an annual review of the state of Bangladesh's development. The IRBD exercise has by now established itself as one of the principal sources of reliable data and quality analysis pertaining to critical developmental issues in Bangladesh. The IRBD volumes demonstrate a unique effort by independent professionals to establish the fact that the civil society in Bangladesh is capable of assuming the responsibility, on a containing basis, for holding policy-makers accountable for their stewardship of the developmental process. The current volume Changes and Challenges undertakes a comprehensive review of the state of the economy during FY2000, and puts under scrutiny major policy initiatives, growth dynamics and recent trends in the Bangladesh economy. IRBD2000 analysis Macroeconomic Performance in its major dimensions and also deals with developments particularly in the External Sector and in Agriculture during the fiscal year 2000. In addition to examining the current performance of the Bangladesh economy, IRBD2000 also contains focused analyses of the country's emerging developmental challenges. Thus, the volume also deals with a select sect of issues of strategic importance for the future development of Bangladesh. These issues include the state of Governance, Rethinking Anti-Poverty, Development of the Gas Sector and Power Sector Restructuring.

334 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2001

About the author

Professor Rehman Sobhan was educated at St. Paul’s School, Darjeeling, Aitichison College, Lahore and Cambridge University where he was awarded an MA in Economics. He began his working career at the faculty of Economics, Dhaka University in 1957 and retired as Professor of Economics in 1977. He served as Member, Bangladesh Planning Commission, in charge of the Divisions of Industry, Power and Natural Resources, and of Physical Infrastructure, as Chairman, Research Director, Director General and Emeritus Fellow, BIDS from and as a Visiting Fellow, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford. He was a Member of the Advisory Council of the President of Bangladesh in 1991, in charge of the Ministry of Planning and the Economic Relations Division. He is the founder and Executive Chairman of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). He has been the Executive Director, South Asia Centre for Policy Studies (SACEPS), a Visiting Scholar, Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University and a Senior Research Fellow, at the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance, Harvard University. Currently he is the Chairman of CPD.

Professor Sobhan has held a number of important professional positions. He was a Member of the Panel of Economists to review the Third and Fourth Five Year Plans of Pakistan, Editor, Pakistan Economic Journal and Editor, Forum, a weekly magazine by The Daily Star. He served the independent Government of Bangladesh as Envoy Extraordinary with special responsibility for Economic Affairs, during the Liberation War in 1971. He was President, Bangladesh Economic Association, Member, Bangladesh National Commission on Money, Banking and Finance, Member, U.N. Committee for Development Planning, Member, Governing Council of the U.N. University, Tokyo, Member of the Commission for a New Asia, Kuala Lumpur, Member of the Board of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva, Member of the Executive Committee of the International Economic Association, Member of the Group of Emminent Persons appointed by the SAARC Heads of State to review the future of SAARC, Chairman, South Asia Centre for Policy Studies, Chairman of the Board of Grameen Bank, Member of the BIDS Board of Trustees and Member of the International Advisory Committee of the Ash Institute, Harvard University. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Freedom Foundation, Bangladesh, Chairman of the Pratichi Trust (Bangladesh) set up by Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and Board Member of SACEPS, Kathmandu.

He has published 27 books, 15 research monographs and 140 articles in professional journals. His principal publications include: Basic Democracies, Works Programme and Rural Development in East Pakistan, Public Enterprise in an Intermediate Regime, The Crisis of External Dependence: The Political Economy of Foreign Aid to Bangladesh, Debt Default and the Crisis of State Sponsored entrepreneurship in Bangladesh, Planning and Public Action for Asian Women, Rethinking the Role of the State in Development: Asian Perspectives, Bangladesh: Problems of Governance, Agrarian Reform and Social Transformation, Aid Dependence and Donor Policy: The Case of Tanzania, Transforming Eastern South Asia, Rediscovering the Southern Silk Route, Challenging Injustice: The Odyssey of a Bangladeshi Economist, Milestones to Bangladesh and The Political Economy of Malgovernance in Bangladesh.