The practice and effect of development planning in Bangladesh
| Author | Syed Abu Hasnath |
| Date | 01 January 1987 |
| Published date | 01 January 1987 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230070105 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
7,
59-75 (1987)
The practice and effect
of
development planning in
Bangladesh
SYED ABU HASNATH
Bangladesh University
of
Engineering and Technology, Dacca
SUMMARY
Development planning in Bangladesh has not been conspicuously successful. Neverthless
it is essential for the nation
to
continue to plan its economy. Bangladesh’s plans must be
explored within the context
of
the economic and sociopolitical constraints that are placed
upon the plan and its implementation. The First Five Year Plan (FFYP) was prepared
within the framework
of
a socialist economy but not implemented accordingly. The attitude
of
the government was a major factor in the eventual distortion
of
this plan. The mobiliz-
ation
of
national resources and their allocation, land reforms, subsidy measures, and
industrial policies pursued by the government appeared
to
protect group interests rather
than following recommendations
of
the plan. A bitter triangular relationship emerged
among the politicians, the bureaucrats and the planners. This can explain why
the
implemen-
tation
of
the plan fell short of what was minimally expected. Subsequent plans, unlike the
FFYP which placed high priority on social sectors, have been formulated in favour
of
the
more productive sectors
of
agriculture and manufacturing. The outcome has been a modest
increase in economic growth, but inequality and poverty have tended to perpetuate them-
selves.
To
achieve growth with social equality, planning in Bangladesh appears
to
need
strong public commitment and bureaucratic support, the absence of which
may
prove
to
make national development planning ineffective,
if
not counterproductive.
INTRODUCTION
Development planning in Bangladesh has been the subject of considerable interest
among economists and other observers of development since the independence of
the country in 1971. Much high-quality thought has been given to this topic by
eminent economists
in
Bangladesh and abroad (Islam, 1977), 1978; Sobhan,
1974; Sobhan and Ahmed, 1980; Mahmood, 1980; Alamgir, 1974a,b, 1976, 1980;
Maunder, 1982; Robinson and Griffin, 1974). This essay presents one more way
of
looking at what has happened
in
planning and development in Bangladesh.
The objectives are:
(1)
to provide
an
account of the nature
of
the problems in
the practice of economic development planning, and
(2)
to
give some explanations
for its effectiveness.
Syed Abu Hasnath is Assistant Professor. Department
of
Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty
of
Architecture and Planning, Bangladesh University
of
Engineering and Technology. Dacca, Bangladesh.
Currently Teaching Fellow. Department
of
Gcography, Boston University, USA.
027
1-2O75/87/O
lOO59-17$O8.50
0
1987
by John Wiley
&
Sons,
Ltd.
60
S.
A.
Hasnath
THE PERSPECTIVE
Planning as a useful tool in policy-making is recognized by an increasing number
of countries, irrespective of their political, social
or
economic systems and their
stages
of
economic growth. According to the 1978 edition of the catalogue of
Interdocumentation Company,
AG
of Switzerland, there are no less than
323
economic development plans, all prepared since 1951 (Mehemet, 1978). This
widespread use illustrates the fact that planning has gained virtually worldwide
acceptance as an efficient means to development, and that its practice ensures a
discipline to the present and a direction to the future of a nation’s economy (Lees
and Marries, 1971). Yet the record is not very encouraging. The performance
of
many plans has fallen far short of expectations. The national planning experiences
of less developed countries (LDCs), particularly with mixed economies, are charac-
terized by ineffectiveness and frustration (Bromley, 1977, 1978). Some things have
been achieved, but the gap between expectation and achievement remains
so
wide
that it causes growing scepticism about the usefulness of the product-the plan.
There has also been a great deal
of
criticism
of
‘development strategies’ designed
to make the size of the cake bigger by maximizing the growth of the
gross
national
product. Furthermore, emphasis has been laid on the need
for
a better distribution
of the benefits of development which the developmentalists call ‘growth with
redistribution’.
However,in essence most
of
those authors (e.g. Seers, 1972; Killick, 1976) argue
for two main shifts of emphasis in the process
of
planning: (1) a shift away from
the preparation of a vast planning document towards greater concern with plan
implementation; and (2) a lowering of priority given to economic growth as against
other social objectives (Feber and Seers, 1972).
Against the above background of criticism, the present essay sets out to discuss
the period from 1972
to
1980 in Bangladesh, covering the lifespan
of
the First
Five Year Plan (1973-78). It also touches upon the Two Year Plan (1978-80) and
the (Draft) Second Five Year Plan (1980-85).
PLANNING HERITAGE: A BACKGROUND
The effort to generate economic growth through planning is not new
in
Bangla-
desh; rather the current activity is a legacy of
the
past. Whatever analysis was
undertaken on the objectives and policies
of
development planning in Bangladesh
was done in the context of the successive Five Year Plans of Pakistan, although
the sociopolitical circumstances and economic policy choices have been quite
different in independent Bangladesh compared to what they were before Indepen-
dence (Islam, 1977, pp. 2-3). The basic model
of
development followed in Pakistan
was based on the Harrod-Domar approach,
in
which growth depends on capital
formation, which in turn depends
on
savings (Haq, 1966). This led to continued
growth in the output
of
manufactures, and the foundation was laid for capital
goods industries in West Pakistan. This was a policy
of
transferring income from
rural to urban areas. It inevitably involved redistributing income away from
agriculture in general, i.e. the poorest members of the community, and from East
Pakistan
in
particular, the poorer region of the nation (Griffin and Enos,
1970).
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