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On the English Road, in the backstreet of Dholaikhal, at Nawabpur and Moulvibazar one may wonder what foreigners are looking for.
These people are also seen at restaurants at Banani, Gulshan and Baridhara dining and talking with locals. Are not these unusual? But they are not obviously making a fun.
These foreigners are not either holiday makers. They are diplomats, not tourists.
They are doing this exercise because they have been asked to do it for their national interest. They are paid to do this type of jobs and they are doing it in a highly professional manner.
Their job is to promote exports, build image and protect interest of their own countries. They do not sit idle and move around even in small towns to know about the country's import requirements and habits of the people.
Now the question is why one country needs to have its mission in another country. The sole aim for developing relation with another country is to promote own cause. The diplomats of those countries can go any length for their national benefit. They do not suffer from any false vanity in doing so.
Our diplomats working in foreign missions are as responsible as their counterparts in Bangladesh do. In this respect, the only guiding force is the patriotism.
What we see when we look at the activities of our foreign missions. We will see an attitude starkly different from others. The government in many a time has expressed concerns about what the country's diplomats are doing for the country.
What role are they playing to boost the country's exports? Bangladesh is a country still struggling to improve its economy external and internal efforts. Nearly two-thirds of the country's people live below the poverty line (less than 2,100 calories intake per day).
The commerce ministry recently blamed the consular offices in London, Tokyo and Paris for poor performances in achieving their export targets.
"The performance of consular offices in London, Paris and Tokyo has deteriorated over the past six months despite repeated warnings," said a high official after a meeting on the performance of trade missions abroad.
London, Paris and Tokyo missions have lagged behind by 0.92 per cent, 3.50 per cent and 7.55 per cent respectively from the export targets set for the period between July and October.
The meeting was told that 25, out of 46 missions have failed to achieve the target during the same period.
The target set for these missions was nearly US $ 1.58 billion for the period between July and October. But they achieved nearly $ 1.46 billion, down by 7.58 per cent.
If the performances of these consular offices do not improve the ministry will summon the consular chiefs to the country for explanations. The government may also hold the ambassadors and high commissioners responsible for the failure of the consular offices from now on.
The chiefs of the consular offices have been instructed to send their performance reports through the ambassadors and high commissioners so that the commerce ministry can take appropriate action. They have also been asked to explore new export markets for the country.
The ministry is now examining the potentiality of establishing consular offices in around 20 new destinations including some African, West African, Central Asian and North American countries.
Berlin, Rome, Brussels, Dubai, Islamabad, Bangkok, Cairo, Singapore, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Katmandu, Nairobi, Yangon, Brunei, Amman and Colombo are the places where the consular offices have failed to achieve their respective targets other than London, Paris and Tokyo.
Not only the government, but also the country's business community, which largely depends on the tips or information on trade from abroad, is critical about the activities of the diplomats.
They often ask question about what the diplomats, who are paid from tax-payers money, are doing abroad. They are being given special allowances for maintaining contacts with potential buyers and tapping businesses for the country.
Under the circumstances, it seems our people in foreign missions are not doing enough to raise our exports and help the country earn increased foreign exchange so desperately needed to build the nation.
In this highly competitive era we must strive to get as much buyers as we can to raise our exports. The competition has been mounting since the end of the decades-old Multi-fibre Arrangement (MFA) at the start of the New Year. The MFA had offered duty-free access of garments of least developed countries, including Bangladesh, to the markets of developed nations.
The circumstance warrants an extra effort by the missions abroad to raise the country's exports, especially the non-traditional items.
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