The New Nation - Internet Edition

Earthquake preparedness a must

ANOTHER earthquake jolted the country on Saturday. According to media report the earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale with its epicentre located 290 kilometres north-northwest of Dhaka shook four northern districts. The tremor lasted five seconds. About 30 buildings have developed cracks and a six-storeyed building has tilted. This is a mild earthquake that the country experiences from time to time. An increased frequency of tremors has been observed during the recent past. The southeastern region of the country was jolted several times during the period. Some experts see these tendencies as indications of stronger quakes.

Bangladesh is located in an active earthquake zone. On the basis of distribution of earthquake epicentres and behaviour of different tectonic blocks the country has been divided into three generalised seismic zones. The northeastern folded regions are seismically the most active. Out of 18 major earthquakes since 1548 these zones were jolted at least 11 times. Some of those tremors had crossed 8 in the Richter scale.

The Great India Earthquake at Shillong Plateau in June 1897 reached a magnitude of 8.7 claiming at least 545 lives in Sylhet town. The Barind, Modhupur and Moynamoti blocks and the adjoining areas make up the less risk zones while the southwest region the quiet or the least quake prone area. Major earthquakes in the country cannot be ruled out.

Experts opine that, though Bangladesh is at a high risk of earthquakes due to its geographic location, the country is not ready to combat such disasters. Buildings with high risks should be identified and demolished or propped up as is applicable. Experts suggest launching of massive earthquake awareness campaign, retrofitting existing buildings, strengthening building inspection system, proper implementation of building code and training for the masons, architects and engineers for facing earthquake.

Accountability in health services

TRANSPARENCY International Bangladesh (TIB) in its latest annual report found the rate of corruption in some sectors declining a bit while it rose in other sectors. Individually, most corruption was noted in the education sector followed closely by the health sector. Thus, there is a very pressing need to cleanse this sector from ills. The vast numbers of the poor in this country are dependent on the public health sector. Its too shabby and sub-standard services are leaving no choices for the poor who cannot afford the costly private medical care.

The government in recent years has gone for expansionary activities in the public health sector. However, more important is devising an effective accountability system. A framework to make public health sector personnel accountable for what they do or do not do, has been felt for a long time. Doctors paid from the public purse remain absent, specially from the rural health complexes, and the spending of their energies and enthusiasm seem to be disproportionately higher on their private practices than at their government designated work places.

The administrations of public hospitals and health complexes are plagued by corruption that involve smuggling out of stores of medicines forcing their poor users to buy them back at prohibitive prices from the black market. From cleaning the premises to supplies of food to patients, everywhere in the public hospitals and rural health centres, the picture is one of pervasive corruption. Even valuable equipment from the hospitals are stolen or remain idle as they are not properly used. Therefore, a comprehensive accountability structure in the public health sector is needed. It should provide for penalties for dereliction of duty. Only then delivery in the public health sector can be expected to improve.

To borrow or not to borrow

Maswood Alam Khan

Quiet as a sleeping mouse you are purring with pleasure by defaulting on a loan, while the lender, tirelessly chasing you as an agitated cat, is in default of his sleep. Meanwhile, interests on the unpaid loan are silently and unceasingly being accrued even after your death---to be borne by your living child or a child yet to be born.

Among animals it is only humans who have developed the habit of lending and borrowing---causing a forced departure from the genetic traits living beings are designed to follow for their natural evolution on this earth. Humans parted with their long habit of living from hands---picking fruits from trees---to mouth when their eyes became bigger than their stomachs and when they found the limited horizons visible too small, their appetite for creature comforts too insatiable and 'today' too short a period.

With fruits too dull to thrive on, humans though herbivores by default borrowed the meat-eating habit from carnivores and mastered the art of defeating the weaklings as a means of satiating their greed by the prowess of their muscles and wits.

When the tussle between humans and wild animals had to take a turn to a duel, first, between strong and weak humans, and then, between humans of the same strength 'cutting a deal' was perhaps the first instrument humans started using to negotiate for resources of tomorrow after resources available today got exhausted: the first stepping stone of a peculiar premises a human set his foot on 'to promise to pay back in future what he has enjoyed at the present moment'; in other words, to mortgage the uncertainty of tomorrow to relish the sureness of today. Thus, a human child had to carry the burden of debts incurred by his/her father, grandfather or his/her nation long before s/he was born.

Subsequently, there has been an increase in the number of people failing to repay their loans because of their escalating debt commitments with limited resources at their custody. Despite lenders tightening their borrowing criteria it appears that people are struggling to cope with their current debt levels and with days passing are at higher risk of facing bankruptcy or insolvency. Intending borrowers promise the earth before getting their loans; but the reliability of their promises on papers wears very thin.

When you are asked to sign on papers you are supposed to read thoroughly what is written on those papers and your signature on a paper means you have unhesitant consent, with clear and full knowledge, to what is written on the paper for your compliance. But, borrowers in most cases don't wait to read those fine prints of vital documents like "Promissory Note" or "Letter of Indemnity"; eager for grabbing the cash loan they impatiently ask the banker where to sign and blindly sign wherever he is pointed at, not knowing that those signed papers will one day speak loudly in a court of law against him if he defaults on his promised transactional behaviour.

Just to observe the desperation of a borrower before a loan is handed to him I played a trick on a loan applicant when I was a manager of a branch of Agrani Bank in Dhaka city many years back. One paper trickily chipped in inside a heap of papers presented for his signing was printed with an undertaking that 'in case he defaults on his loan he authorises the bank to sell the whole premises of the High Court building he purchased two years back'. The loan applicant gleefully signed each and every paper of the heap of documents. Next day as I showed him the signed paper on his buying and selling the High Court building he cringed with shame and embarrassment.

If today our Board of Revenue issues an ordinance that each person breathing in air will have to pay Taka 10 per day on account of oxygen in urban areas and Taka 5 in rural areas in consideration of high cost of cleansing the breathable air from pollutants there must be uproars of protests initially, but we will have to taper off our anger after a few days of agitations---the way we painfully took it for granted that drinking water from a wellspring or a mellow guava from a tree in the grove is no more a free commodity. Air which has for ages been our free basic right to breathe in to keep our heart throbbing may one day be as costly as gas we are purchasing to keep our machines moving.

But our genes repel in rebellion whenever we grope our pockets in search of cash to pay for food, water or fresh air we have been so used for millions of years to take for free. It is not simply human nature; rather it is evolutionary nature on the part of any living being 'not to pay back' any money for anything we take for our living.

No wonder we who borrow money try our best to avoid meeting our creditors and detour difficult paths while commuting only to skirt around the bankers who lent us money. We forget who when did give us loans; we hate to remember our credit transactions that have now been turned into debts.

But bankers or moneylenders cannot afford to forget their creditors who owe them money in principals as well as accrued interests. A banker's head reels when he finds a loan, a prime asset of his bank, sliding from its performing status into a nonperforming grade.

The banker suffers a splitting headache when the nonperforming asset spins first into a Substandard Loan, then into a Doubtful Loan and ultimately into a Bad & Loss Loan. A 'bad & loss loan' is a double whammy to a banker. Not only he is debarred from taking charged interests accrued on the 'bad & loss' loan as income of his business; even worse, he has to make 100 percent provision, equivalent to the amount of the bad loan, to be extracted from incomes made from other healthy areas of his business. At this juncture the banker, like an agitated cat, bares his fangs and chases up the defaulting borrower who, like a quiet mouse, was purring with pleasures.

Stories of dogfights between lenders and borrowers have long been fodder for gossip columnists, lyricists, playwrights, and soup operas. Many poor became poorer and many rich richer with the culture of borrowing and lending evolved in our society. Countless borrowers and lenders had to embrace their premature deaths from the burdens of unbalanced debits and credits. Many paupers and thugs also morphed into tycoons by short-changing both their debtors and creditors.

We 'need' food to slake our hunger; but we 'want' a brand new car to flaunt our status. When a demand crosses from the domain of 'need' to the insatiable realm of 'want' consumerism wears a borrowing-based character, a departure from nature.

We mostly fail to sort choices between 'needs and wants.' However, most economists remind us that all goods and services are really wants, because it is very difficult to determine what makes something a need. Needs are largely subjective; people differ greatly in what they regard as needs. Nevertheless, wants---if not needs---can be placed at different points along a continuum of importance. Some wants are more important than others. In most cases borrowing is more a habit than a necessity. Confronted by a multitude of tempting consumer products one must learn how to evaluate the options available to him. One who does not know how to spend money wisely falls into the booby trap and becomes a pathological borrower.

Day-to-day decisions, about how much to spend and what to buy, should be made with "real Takas" and not with hypothetical "future Takas" as it is impossible to predict the future. Whenever you use a credit card or borrow money you are depending on your future Takas that may or may not emanate from your next month's pay check.

There are many in our society, especially the elderly people, who dislike the idea of owing another person or any bank any money; they hate the "borrowing money---owing money---paying back" process. Whenever they make a purchase, they simply consider an item's value, its actual cost, and the long-term benefits of the purchase. They enjoy the "simplicity" of using cash and dislike the "emotional burden" of owing money. As for the credit card miles or bonus points, they wouldn't trade the "emotional reward" of being debt-free for all of the bonus points in the world.

Is it not pleasant to spend money that I already have, that I have already earned, and that I have already deposited? There is something exhilarating about "swimming-against-the-tide". We may try to be a little different, a bit of a maverick, by having divorced ourselves from the notion that "the whole world is running on credit culture and we too should follow the crowd". Let's be debt-free!!

Young children often want many things they see in stores and they may give little thought to the cost of the things they want. But they can learn to budget the money they have in order to save for special purchases. Even young people can understand that we live in a world of unlimited wants and limited resources, and that choices must therefore be made. They can learn how to do comparison shopping in order to make decisions about good and bad buys. The earlier children begin to think about how they spend their money, the sooner they will become wiser and more satisfied consumers. The problem is: people, rich or poor, young or old, want more than they can have---to be happy.

Human life on this earth now revolves around an enigmatic question: who is happier? An American who lives a luxurious life, but dies heavily in debts? Or, a Bangladeshi who burps an air of gratification after having a simple but gluttonous meal of boiled rice, smashed potatoes and lentil soup and enters his grave leaving no debt for his children to shoulder? Pundits around the world have already started whispering about the winner: "The Bangladeshi!"

D-8 Summit in Malaysia

Dr.Abdul Ruff

The 6th summit of the leaders of the Developing-8 Muslim nations, popularly known as D-8, is in progress as scheduled for on July 4-8 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The D-8 group established in July 1997 has a volume of trade among themselves that stands today at US $49 billion, up from US $14.5 billion in 1999. The secretariat is based in Istanbul, Turkey. The senior officials called Commissioners in D-8 met on y 3-4 for doing the groundwork. The final summit is to be held on July 08 and the venue for the Summit is Hilton Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.

ONE

This would be a significant gathering of government leaders of some of the largest Islamic countries Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, Turkey, Nigeria and Egypt. It is the first time that Malaysia is hosting the D8 Summit, an economic grouping of eight Muslim countries The theme of the Summit is "Meeting Challenges Through Innovative Cooperation." The opening of the 6th Summit of D-8 will be held on 8th of July 2008, where the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will deliver the opening address followed by the handing over of the group's chairmanship by President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. There will be the 11th Session of the D-8 Council of Ministers comprising Ministers in charge of Foreign Affairs of member states on 6th of July 2008.

The last summit was hosted by Indonesia, the current chairman of D-8, in Bali, Indonesia on 13th of May 2006. The meeting focused on how D-8 member states could boost trade among themselves and exploit each other's strength. The price of crude oil touched US$145 (US$1=RM3.26) per barrel on the back of a weak US dollar in the global market on concerns about conflict in the Middle East and lower crude oil inventories. The leaders of third world Islamic nations admitted that they have the usual work to do such as the preparation of preferential trade agreement and finding ways to intensify trade cooperation among the member states. During the Indonesian chairmanship, agreement was reached on rules of origin as a precondition for the realization of a D-8 preferential trade agreement as the result of the Bali summit. "Under Indonesia's chairmanship, 31 activities had been carried out, including 15 by Indonesia covering cooperation in trade, micro-finance, energy, tourism, civil aviation, and healthcare," an official said.

The D-8 forum, established by eight Organization of Islamic Conference member countries sharing development and population characteristics to promote economic cooperation and development especially in agriculture, industry, energy and trade, aims to enhance cooperation in areas such as trade, investment, rural development, human resource development, science and technology, agriculture and health to improve the economic status of member states. The summit is held once in every two years, discussing various economic issues facing the bloc countries. Malaysia will hold the chairmanship for two years before passing to another member country. Bangladesh hosted the second summit in 1999 when the leaders focused on possibilities of integrating their economies.

The idea of cooperation among the developing Muslim countries was mooted by Dr. Neemettin Erbakan, the then Prime Minister of Turkey, during a seminar on "Cooperation in Development" held in Istanbul in October 1996. The group envisioned cooperation among countries stretching from South-East Asia to Africa.

TWO

D8 is thus an economic alliance with the objective of improving the position of Muslim developing countries in the global world economy through the diversification of their economies by creating new opportunities via increased trade relations. In the process, they hope to improve the standard of living of their people, with the objective of promoting economic and trade cooperation among the eight largest Muslim economies.

It seeks to create new trade opportunities, promote linkages and enhance standards of living among the member-states. It was set up in 1997 as an economic alliance with the objective of improving the position of Muslim developing countries in the global world economy through the diversification of their economies by creating new opportunities via increased trade relations. In the process, they hope to improve the standard of living of their people.

The 2008 Summit is expected to adopt the decision on the setting up of the D-8 Permanent Secretariat and D-8 Roadmap for Economic Cooperation for the next ten years, in the Second Decade of Cooperation (2008 - 2018). Discussions will also cover a roadmap of D-8 -- economic cooperation roadmap in the second decade of cooperation (2008-2012). To jump start the summit, a meeting of the senior officials appointed by their respective governments otherwise known as the 25th Session of the Commission of D-8, was held on 4th and 5th of July 2008 in Kuala Lumpur.

The 10-year plan aims to encourage greater economic cooperation between member nations and boost our intra-trade from 5% of the total trade for D8 countries to 15% to 20% in the next 10 years," according to secretary-general Dipo Alam.

"Last year, total D8 trade was $1 trillion and intra-trade was about $60 billion so we believe this cooperation will open more opportunities for us," he added.

The main stumbling block has been agreement on a 2005 preferential trade agreement that was deadlocked on the "rules of origin" part of the pact, which trade officials are trying to resolve ahead of the summit. D8 has yet to implement three agreements that would help it reach its target.

The rules of origin are used to determine the source of goods for trade purposes. "Without the rules of origin, we cannot implement the Preferential Trade Agreement and at the moment only Malaysia and Iran have ratified the pact," Alam said. Six member countries have already agreed to have local content at 40% but Bangladesh wants the local content to be about 30% while Egypt wants it as high as 50%. Dipo quipped, "If they ask for 50% then there will be no trade."

THREE

According to available information, most of the leaders of those countries will attend the 6th D-8 Summit have sent confirmation to secretariat. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Pakistani Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani. The group also includes Bangladesh, Egypt and Nigeria which will be represented by ministers at the July 4-8 conference.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to attend the 6th Developing Eight summit before he attends the summit of high profile developed nations' forum G8 Hokkaido, Japan and hand over the D-8 chairmanship to Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi. During the meeting, President Yudhoyono is also slated to have a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Badawi and Malaysian business community. The Indonesian government held the D-8 chairmanship since May 2006 at the 5th summit in the country's resort island Bali.

It appears, the rising oil prices will not be the top agenda of the 6th Group of Eight Developing Islamic Countries Summit (D-8), though the leaders are to discuss it. "It is a much broader issue. The crisis should be discussed at the global stage," said Ambassador, Deputy Undersecretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkey, Selim Kuneralp.

"We, but I think we can't take concrete step because the problem is universal and something not peculiar to D-8," he told reporters on the sidelines of the 25th Session of D-8 Commission in Kuala Lumpur. Apart from halal and oil issues the meeting also focused on efforts towards developing renewable energy.

Officials were struggling to reach a compromise on issues before the arrival of the leaders, but with a little success. D8 members are pushing the ratification of a customs agreement and a visa program for businessmen and traders, but it would be difficult to say when these agreements would be concluded, because upon the implementation of the agreements, trade among the grouping was expected to grow substantially.