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NEWSPAPERS have recently carried prominent reports on the pathetic conditions of Chittagong. Its residents have been suffering unimaginable hardships from not having the minimum of water for their needs or any semblance of a normal electricity supply. This situation has not only turned life very miserable for the inhabitants of the city, the same is crippling its businesses and industries.
But Chittagong has the second biggest urban concentration in the country. It also has the main sea-port and the biggest trading centre. Besides, it is also a hub of industrial activities. In recognition of these qualities, Chittagong was named as the commercial capital of Bangladesh in the mid nineties. The aim behind such naming was to give encouragement to its development and that of the adjoining areas befitting its role in the national economy. However, the name-giving has not been quite followed by actions to develop Chittagong truly as the commercial capital. Rather, the woes of Chittagong have only worsened .
The incident of a major power failure in Chittagong some months ago symbolised the plight of the second most important city although in the commercial sense it should be regarded as the first one. A breakdown at a power grid station there created very great sufferings for its over four million people. Only 90 mw of power could be intermittently supplied to it for days against a normal demand of 440 mw. Not only it was a breakdown in power supply, Chittagong's water supply also virtually stopped to create unimaginable agonies for its residents from the waterlessness. The demand for water in the city is about 110 million gallons but the supply dwindled to only 30 million gallon as water supply here is largely dependent on electricity.
The very notable aspect is that the supply of power and water has not yet normalised in Chittagong even after repair works were carried out in that power station. The supply of power and water still remains in a very poor state. The water and power supply in the port city is being maintained precariously through patchworks on the power transmission and distribution systems when the requirements are their immediate large scale overhaul.
The power transmission lines and related equipment in Chittagong have remained in dilapidated conditions for long that dictated the need to urgently replace them. The phase-three project of the Power Development Board (PDB) was adopted as far back as 1997 to achieve improvements in the power supply of the city on a lasting basis. But ironically, this vital projects has not even taken off, notwithstanding that Chittagong produces a major part of the economic resources or wealth of the country.
The heart of Chittagong is its port which handles the bulk of the country's overseas trade. The demand on this port for its various services is increasing steadily. Fulfilling this demand alone can substantially step up the rate of investments in the entire country. But the development of the port or, more significantly, its expansion, remains on hold due to conflicting positions of the port personnel and unions, on the one hand, and the private developers, on the other. This knotty situation needs to be solved, among other things, in order to start the upgradation and expansion activities of this port and also to build additional port capacities.
The government has policies on paper to shift the headquarters of relevant government bodies and departments to Chittagong as this would be only logical and consistent with Chittagong's geographical location. But the process remains only partially implemented whereas businesses think that Chittagong must have the head offices of some commercial banks, fully functioning offices of export and import departments and that of the ministry of trade and commerce to facilitate quick or on-the-spot decisions.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) maintains a presence in Bangladesh. The JICA formed a plan in the nineties to extend substantial funds for the development of the Chittagong region as a whole. But the JICA sponsored plan was not taken up, considered and attempted for implementation in the way it deserved and the same is reflective of the characteristic lackadaisical performance of the government in these matters. This plan certainly needs to be given a fresh look with a view to its implementation.
For a country's economic activities to be sustained and improved, its ports must be in good functioning position. The good functioning does not only mean its ability to remain navigable or the general capacity to load and unload cargoes. The good functioning in the economic sense has much wider implications and the key word in this connection is 'competitiveness.' This competitiveness can mean a host of things but basically it means that the port's operations must be at par or better in relation to the functioning of ports in other countries. If a neighboring port in another country can handle goods faster or charges incoming ships lesser amounts as port charges, then the port which cannot provide similar services or less charges is regarded as less competitive or not competitive .
This lack of competitiveness can drastically reduce the number of ships calling on it and as a result the country's vital export and import operations might face serious setbacks. Time has come to consider very seriously whether such a fate has already gripped the Chittagong port that handles nearly seventy per cent of the country's foreign trade. The symptoms crystallised long ago that this port had become rather uncompetitive and the same constituted a source of threat to the country's very vital export and import activities . It was reliably assessed sometime ago that the export of readymade garments, the main foreign currency earner, could be some 30 per cent higher if only the Chittagong port functioned efficiently.
Many things must be done to restore the competitiveness of the Chittagong port. The first in order seems to be reducing the port charges. A substantial cut in these charges will add to the competitiveness of the export trade as well as create incentives for foreign ships to call more frequently and in greater number at Chittagong. Simultaneously, all out efforts must be made to achieve efficiency in the port's operations in every sphere such as minimising handling time, reducing bureaucracy to the minimum in releasing or loading goods, improving the mechanical capacities for cargo handling, freeing its employees from the influence of rabid trade unionism, adding to the cargo handling capacities , etc.
Only doing of these things would not be enough. In view of the longer term economic projections of the country, the Chittagong port must be readied for much greater cargo handling in the future and for this purpose it must be expanded and modernised. Thus, conditions for sufficient investments to this end must be created at this port.
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