EDITORIAL

After the protracted lull of the Spring Festival holidays, the political scene in Beijing became vibrant with the two biggest annual rituals being held simultaneously. The 4th Session of the 10th National People’s Congress (NPC) and the annual plenary session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) were convened during the first half of March 2006. Amidst the usual fanfare surrounding the events and in the full glow of local and international media, the NPC approved the 11th Five Year Plan that chalked out the blueprint of New China for the next half decade. The buzzword of the two Conventions this year was Rural Development. The underlying emphasis is to pull up the rural economy in China through an equitable distribution of the wealth generated and accumulated in the big metropolises. All the political leaders assembled at the Conventions reaffirmed their resolve to address the gap between the haves and have-nots almost on a war footing. 

Bangladesh can claim to be a trendsetter in rural development. From the days of the world famous Commilla Model of Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD), Bangladesh has developed many successive strategies to ameliorate the lives of the rural masses. The Grameen Bank model of micro-credit operations has been replicated in five continents of the world. Thanks to these initiatives, Bangladesh today has attained near food self-sufficiency with the eighth largest population in the world and a land area the size of most provinces in China. The rural population are now engaging themselves in gainful employment, finding access to improved health care facilities, empowering themselves through spontaneous participation in local government institutions, reaping the benefits of massive infrastructure development and rural electrification, and getting exposed to the outside world through TV and mobile phones.

While Bangladesh may share its experiences with China in these areas, she can also learn from the relevant strategies being pursued by the Chinese Government to infuse growth in the rural economy. This may unfold a new area of meaningful bilateral cooperation between the two countries at this critical juncture of their respective economic developments.