Corrupt politics responsible for Bangladesh’s present bleak economic scenarios

Editorial Desk :
Bangladesh is currently going through a huge economic crisis. From remittance of migrant workers to management of the country’s banking sector and financial institutions, everything has been hit hard by the existing corrupt politics of the country.
Take for example the depressing remittance facts. What could be the possible reasons for which the remittance that Bangladesh receives does not match with the number of people working abroad now? Recently after the covid-19 pandemic, there has been a spurt of Bangladeshi workers going to different foreign destinations but in comparison to the number of jobs the volume of remittance is small indeed.
According to a report of national daily, in 2022 Bangladeshis served a total of 1,135,873 overseas job and the country received $ 21.28 billion remittance. Now compare these figures to the corresponding ones of the previous year. In 2021 Bangladeshis served a total 617,209 overseas jobs, but Bangladesh received more than it received in 2022, $22.07 billion. It is not that the expatriate workers are earning less.
Though there could be other reasons, the migrant workers are palpably using the informal channel to send money home than the formal channel despite the fact the government announced cash incentives to encourage them to use the formal channel. In fiscal 2019-20, the government introduced a 2 per cent cash incentive which was increased to 2.5 per cent in fiscal 2021-22.
What experts — who usually protect this government–are not telling people clearly that after the country’s dollar reserves have started to deplete, mainly due to money laundering, the migrant workers are increasingly losing their trust to send money through the formal channel as people inside Bangladesh are now more interested to keep their money in their homes than in banks.
Due to loan irregularities that make way for looting of banks, especially the Sharia-based Islami Bank and others, depositors are not finding the banks a safe place to keep their money. Not surprisingly, the unbridled banking sector anomalies have forced the renowned international credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade its outlook of Bangladesh’s banking sector from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’.
Therefore, even if for argument’s sake we take it for granted that the Ukraine-Russia war will come to an end soon–which is however very unlikely–Bangladesh’s economy will not be able to overcome its current crisis. People whether they are migrant workers or depositors inside Bangladesh do not trust this government anymore for the massive corruption and huge financial irregularities it has indulged in.
The internationally prestigious magazine The Economist also pointed out in its most recent issue that Bangladesh’s corrupt politics is mainly to blame for the present bleak economic scenarios. Bangladesh must get rid of corrupt politicians who, supported by outside forces including India, have crushed all democratic aspirations of people including their right to choose their own government.