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It is time the myopia about Dhaka city ceased to exist in preference to a composite national approach to realising the full potential of Chattogram, Khulna, Rajshahi, to name the other obvious three major cities.
The reasons for such a much-needed shift of outlook are three-fold: First, the exceeding concentration and density of population and economic activities in the capital city is having a suction/ impoverishing effects on the rest of urban centres. Secondly, the other cities have their own rights to grow and blossom, that too with the advantage of unencumbered modernisation, lest we forget! Lastly, and no less importantly, a symmetrical urban development promises to reduce the burden on the country's capital making the historical city truly functional and livable, not to mention the concomitant poverty alleviation spin-offs.
With our back to the wall in terms of Dhaka-centric urban development, the imperative for a breathing space and dispersal of economic activities away from the capital city, is strongly felt. This found a powerful expression at a discussion meet styled: "Bangladesh's Economic Geography: Some Patterns and Policy Issues," organised by the Policy Research Institute (PRI) in Dhaka on October 17 .
The quest for mitigating the baneful effects of an overpopulated city and its dense economic activities, sort of giving it a pejorative label of a 'hub', is necessary because we are in a race with time with limited options left for a turn-around. The 'geographic' angle has thrown up ideas based on international comparisons that we had so far missed out on even though those should have weighed in with us by now.
By international standards, 31.11 per cent of Bangladesh's total urban population lives in Dhaka whilst the figure for Shanghai, China's largest city is only 3.1 per cent. In India, the largest city has only 6.0 per cent of the total urban populace; Indonesia's figure is 7.4 per cent. But Pakistan and Vietnam with their largest cities having both 22.6 per cent of the urban population are anywhere near Dhaka's concentration of urban population at 31.11 per cent.
Of course, the above-named countries are much bigger than Bangladesh so that comparative analyses with them can be a bit misleading. In spite of, or perhaps because of that, the case for Bangladesh to come to grips with the skewed pattern of urban development is only actually reinforced, especially given the very adverse land:man ratio here.
Cai Li, deputy country director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), advised, "Go to the coast to reduce congestion in cities". Specifically, said he, "The country has a very good ocean resource in the form of fisheries". He asks as to why we are not using the resources.
This senior ADB official gave a valuable cue: China firstly developed its vast coastal zones considering 'their proximity to international markets and easy transportation of goods to other countries or even access to regions inside of China.'
In a similar fashion, the US and Australia have developed their coastal areas with a view to easing high concentration on the cities, not to mention penetrating newer international markets.
Speaking of developing other cities we resonate with economist Binayak Sen's concerns – Why Chattogram is losing its shine as even the rhetoric of its being the second most important city is being muffled with Khulna not developing as expected – as yet!
Look into the backwardness of districts and upazillas from Dinajpur in the northwest to Sunamganj in the northeast. This large swathe of land is lagging behind both in consumption expenditure and economic activities.
Development in the afore-mentioned strategic areas will not happen merely for the asking; it certainly requires adopting the right policy choices – and implementing them in earnest.