Abdullah Shibli
AN OPEN DIALOGUE
Dr Abdullah Shibli is an Economist, and IT consultant. He previously worked for Harvard University and the World Bank.
AN OPEN DIALOGUE
Dr Abdullah Shibli is an Economist, and IT consultant. He previously worked for Harvard University and the World Bank.
Corruption, embezzlement, and money laundering have been endemic in Bangladesh but reached new heights during the last 15 years of the now-toppled regime led by the Awami League.
Bangladesh is facing a disaster on the environmental front owing to the severe and ongoing threat posed by climate change.
The central bank should strengthen its communication strategy to clarify policy decisions and their expected effects on inflation.
It was clear from the beginning of this presidential race that the biggest thorn in Harris’s side was the poor economic record of the Biden-Harris administration.
The Nobel Prize in Economics for 2024 was awarded to three American economists whose research explained why some countries are rich and others poor.
The former government left a lot of debris in its wake that needs to be cleaned up.
There is indirect evidence that the interim government is very much aware of the roles played by the diaspora, particularly those who live in North America and the UK.
How did the elite and the politicians manage to evade the rule of law and siphon billions out of the country?
For future historians, the most memorable event of the year 2020 is certainly likely to be the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by the US Presidential elections.
My heart sank when I saw the headline in The Daily Star on August 17, which reported that the US had updated its periodic travel advisory on August 6, 2020 and urged its citizens to exercise “increased caution in the country due to crime, terrorism, and kidnapping”.
There is a global race going on now for the rapid development of a Covid-19 vaccine. As of July 27, pharmaceutical companies worldwide were working on 164 candidates, including 25 that are being tested in people, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Little international aid is flowing to poorer regions to fight the epidemic.” That was the headline in a major news item circulating in early March, before the spread of Covid-19 was declared to be a “pandemic” and the virus had started its devastating journey out of Wuhan and flattened the economic and geo-economic landscape, upending global commerce.
The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered debates between economists and health specialists. I found myself engaged in a conversation with my childhood friend Imtiaz Husain Chowdhry, MD, who is a physician in the USA with a successful practice and long career behind him.
At the beginning of this year, policymakers in many countries, including the US and the EU, decided to lock down the entire country in order to save lives and to push back Covid-19.
The national budget announced by the Bangladesh government is another example of the curious disconnect between reality and the world of politics.
With the Bangladesh economy in the first phase of its Covid Reopening, the country will be eagerly looking forward to attracting foreign investors to provide a much-needed stimulus.
Every country, small or large, rich or poor, have embraced the concept of a balanced and phased reopening where the concerns of the workers, businesses, and health sector professionals are meshed into a workable action plan.
Once the Covid-19 pandemic is under control, and the world economy is back on its tracks, the status and fate of the 2030 Agenda, also known as Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), needs to be reassessed.