28-01-2019

EDITORIAL
MoNDAy,
JANUARy 28, 2019
4
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
Telephone: +8802-9104683-84, Fax: 9127103
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Monday, January 28, 2019
Formulating policies
vis-à-vis India
Many Bangladeshis overlook the fact
that the reason for India's huge
advantage in its bilateral trade with
Bangladesh stems from the superior abilities of
its producers. Even where the items to be
produced in the two countries are
complementary, the Indian producers seem
to be more efficient and can market their
produce at notably cheaper prices with equal
quality in relation to Bangladeshi products.
Thus, it is no wonder that Indian goods find
ready access to Bangladeshi markets and the
trade gap for us grows.
But there is also another way of looking at it.
India has become Bangladesh's single biggest
source for meetings its import requirements
for various merchandise. One reason is
proximity or freighting costs from India are
cheaper or more competitive than from other
countries for Bangladesh. So, there is a gainful
aspect in this for Bangladesh even though India
enjoys a huge upper hand in the bilateral
trade. But to a large extent this is a natural
relationship between a superior producer and
exporter in relation with a significantly weaker
party in these matters.
But these issues are not seen with objectivity
in Bangladesh but are presented to the gullible
people as if India deliberately practices
economic imperialism with us. In India also
similar notions are spread that Bangladesh is
an unreliable neighbour in many respects
specially in areas that have implications for
India's physical security.
So, it is crucial for the leaderships in both
countries to get rid of these hypes or discourage
them effectively and build up their relationships
based on trust and exact visualization of state of
affairs between them as they stand and not on
some highly exaggerated ones.
It is supremely important for Bangladesh to
realize that notwithstanding both countries
needing each other, the onus is more on
Bangladesh to have correct relations with
India. India not only surrounds us on all three
sides, it is overwhelmingly powerful in all
respects. The lifeline of our economy, the river
systems, all flow into Bangladesh through
India. Thus, India has a mighty geographic
advantage over us and we hardly have a similar
or matching leverage to face up to India.
Some may say that Bangladesh has the transit
factor to bargain with India. But this is only one
area where Bangladesh has a geographical or
locational advantage whereas in all other
geographical senses, India breathes down
Bangladesh's neck or dominates. India is
among the first four countries of the world in
terms of military power. Bangladesh is
inconsequential by comparison.
Thus, we just cannot have our way with India
through keeping alive discords or a
confrontational stand. Governments will come
and go in Bangladesh. But we must essentially
have a united or consensual policy in
response to India. The major political parties
in Bangladesh must come to an understanding
about what that policy will be so that there can
be continuity of it regardless of changes in
governance.
And such a policy needs to be drawn up
completely unemotionally and constructively
minus mind-sets or phobias. Of course, the aim
ought not to be to approach the formation of
this policy with any prejudice but the goal
ought to be firmly also not to make any
concessions if the same is not similarly
responded by the other side.
Only villifying India or using anti-Indianism
to whip up emotions in a bid to win elections
may lead to short term gains for the
perpetrators of such politics in Bangladesh. But
the short, medium and longer term core
interests of the country will not be helped any
by such a stance.
A new relationship with India is waiting to be
defined and shaped seizing and exploiting
every opportunity. Clearly we need to acquire
better specialist capacities to support
formulation of foreign policies specially vis-àvis
India.
Four months ago. Turkish
President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan had promised that he
would liberate the Syrian city of Idlib
from all terrorists groups by no later
than October 2018. That agreement,
reached at the Red Sea resort of
Sochi, was hailed back then as a
major breakthrough, sparring the
city from more bloodshed, and
Europe, from more refugees. The
original deadline passed, however,
and was extended. Still, nothing
happened.
On the contrary, the very same
group that Erdogan had promised
to destroy - Hayat Tahrir Al Sham
(HTS) - managed to overrun what
remained of his proxies in Idlib,
expelling them to the countryside
of Aleppo since early this month. By
mid-January, reinforcements were
being shipped from Damascus to
the vicinity of Idlib, threatening to
carry out what Erdogan had failed
to deliver. If they do that, all of
what the world feared will happen
in the war-torn city in the Syrian
northwest. A big battle will take
place, and thousands of refugees
will flee, either to Turkey or to the
shores of Europe.
Very surprisingly, Erdogan has
neither objected to government
troop advances nor has his Russian
counterpart Vladimir Putin. It was
their joint signature that saved
Idlib from war last October and it
will be their joint action that will
trigger a showdown in Idlib before
next spring. The two men realise
that Erdogan bit off more than what
he could chew on Idlib, and that he
simply lost interest in the city,
If the African Union (AU) is to be
believed, this is the year that the
African Continental Free Trade Area
(AfCFTA) really starts to take shape.
Forty-nine member states have signed up
to the deal, and 15 of them have already
ratified it - including South Africa, the
continent's second-largest economy.
Only seven more ratifications are
required before the agreement, finalized
at the AU's extraordinary summit in
Kigali, Rwanda, last year, becomes legally
binding. But businesses planning around
the deal must be warned: It will only be
several years later, once all the
outstanding issues have been negotiated,
that tariffs and trade barriers may
actually drop. And that is in the best-case
scenario.
The numbers surrounding the
proposed continental free-trade area are
staggering. Once in effect, it will be the
largest trade deal since the establishment
of the World Trade Organization,
encompassing 55 countries, 1.2 billion
people and a combined gross domestic
product of US$2.5 trillion. The AU's
figures suggest that it could boost intra-
African trade by a stunning 52%.
According to Paul Kagame, president of
Rwanda and the current AU chairman,
the deal would rank "among the most
historic achievements of the African
Union." The AU's trade commissioner,
Albert Muchenga, has expressed his
confidence that the necessary
ratifications will be obtained before the
next AU summit, in Addis Ababa on
February 10-11. "We are welcoming the
concrete beginning of the journey to
create one African market," Muchenga
said last year at the Kigali summit. "We
are saying goodbye to the era of small,
Erdogan’s Syria endgame is under way
despite it being on his wishlist since
2015. Originally, Erdogan hoped to
create a huge buffer zone deep
within Syrian territory, including
Idlib and other cities like Manbij,
west of the Euphrates, and Al
Raqqa, former capital of Daesh in
Syria. He soon realised, however,
that was technically impossible -
mainly, because his partner, Putin,
will not allow it.
Al Raqqa was taken by the Kurds
in 2017 and so was Manbij and then
it was handed over to the Syrians
last December. The limits of
Turkey's buffer zone, in as much as
what Russia will allow, seems to be
the cities that he occupied in 2016,
being Jarablus, Azaz and Al Bab,
with current plans to expand it and
include Ras Al Ayn, Kobani, and Tel
Rifaat. He hopes to dismantle
Kurdish presence along the
borderline and carve out an entire
area that would be immune to any
Kurdish rebound, where he can
eventually relocate thousands of
Syrian refugees who have been
living in Turkey since 2011.
SAMI MoUBAyED
Idlib can neither be connected to
this buffer zone nor can it serve as a
separate Turkish protectorate, deep
within Russia's sphere of influence.
Many wondered what Putin had
in store for Idlib, as he transformed
the city into a hub for global
terrorists shipped to it from all four
corners of Syria. He had originally
wanted to create in Idlib a
prototype for what he had
envisioned Syrian cities should look
Very surprisingly, Erdogan has neither objected to
government troop advances nor has his Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin. It was their joint signature that saved Idlib
from war last october and it will be their joint action that will
trigger a showdown in Idlib before next spring. The two men
realise that Erdogan bit off more than what he could chew on
Idlib, and that he simply lost interest in the city, despite it
being on his wishlist since 2015.
isolated and fragmented small markets.
"We are clearly signaling that Africa is
not for isolationism or nationalism. Our
message to ourselves and to the rest of the
world is that we pool our independence
and sovereignty to create a higher value of
inter-dependency anchored on creating
one African market." But despite all the
impressive numbers and the fine
rhetoric, there is still a long way to go
before the AfCFTA approaches the
implementation stage, and major hurdles
must be overcome before Africa's freetrade
dream approaches reality.
The most obvious weak point is
whether Nigeria intends to participate.
President Muhammadu Buhari was
planning to sign the deal, but withdrew at
the last minute after pressure from trade
unions (so last-minute, in fact, that his
convoy was already on the way to the
airport, en route to the Kigali summit,
before suddenly turning back).
Buhari said he needed more time to
hold consultations, and has subsequently
tweeted: "We will not agree to anything
that will undermine local manufacturers
and entrepreneurs, or that may lead to
#Nigeria becoming a dumping ground
SIMoN AllISoN
like if ruled by the armed
opposition. He wanted a state that
would radicalise and send shivers
down the spine of the international
community, making the Daeshexample
in Al Raqqa look civilised.
In 2016, the Russians looked the
other way as Erdogan's proxies
rumbled across the borderline,
overrunning three major Syrian
cities, and last February, they took
the Kurdish city of Afrin. In
exchange for letting him get just
that, Erdogan did not lift a finger to
protect his proxies either in Aleppo
or East Ghouta, who were defeated
by the Russian and Syrian armies in
for finished goods. #AfCFTA."
There is unlikely to be any further
clarity on Nigeria's position before the
presidential election in mid-February.
Buhari's main opponent, Atiku
Abubakar, has indicated that he plans to
sign the free-trade deal should he be
elected.
If he wins, however, he will also have to
do battle with the reluctant trade unions -
and there is no guarantee that this is a
battle he would win. The absence of the
continent's largest economy and most
populous country would doubtless
compromise the trade deal's
effectiveness.
The other major obstacle is likely to
prove even more contentious. In order to
facilitate the signing of the deal, the AU
agreed to postpone decisions on
particularly divisive areas such as the
protocols on competition policy,
intellectual-property rights and rules of
origin. In other words, the really tough
negotiations around the technical details
of the deal are still to come.
Tove van Lennep of the Helen Suzman
Foundation, a South Africa think-tank,
outlines just how much work remains
December 2016 and February 2018.
He will likely do the same in Idlib in
2019.
Putin is once again looking
elsewhere as Erdogan braces
himself for another battle, this time
against the Kurds in Kobani and
Ras Al Ayn. This is where his
ambition has to stop, say the
Russians, and in exchange for
letting him advance against the
Kurds, he is expected to surrender
not only Idlib, but neighbouring
towns and cities like Maaret Al
Nouman, Jisr Al Shughour and
Khan Sheukhoun.
Erdogan is a maverick politician
with an ambition that knows no
bounds. He is also a realistic
statesman, however, who knows
exactly when to adjust - and how.
His original plan, of course, was to
topple the regime in Damascus and
replace it with allies in the Muslim
Brotherhood. When that failed, he
tried snatching Aleppo, but that too
was obstructed by the Russian
intervention of 2015. Now he seems
to have abandoned Idlib as well,
seeing the Kurdish pockets as far
more dangerous - to his country's
national security - than anything
else in the Syrian battlefield. The
two groups that were recently
shipped out of Idlib, Ahrar Al Sham
and the Zinki Brigade, were
seemingly brought out of harm's
way, rather than defeated by HTS.
Erdogan needed them elsewhere,
for another battle - not against HTS
but against the Kurds.
Source: Gulf news
harsh realities hamper establishment of an African FTA
Government reforms aim to
capture up to a quarter of the
$20 billion that Saudis spend
overseas on entertainment each year.
The Saudi government aims to
increase the entertainment sector
contribution to the gross domestic
product (GDP) from 3 percent to 6
percent, while investment in
entertainment is forecast to grow
significantly in the next five years.
The government attaches great
importance to the entertainment
sector. Several government agencies
organize activities but the government
has now unified the efforts of all public
agencies under the umbrella of the
General Entertainment Authority
(GEA), which was established by a
royal decree in line with Vision 2030.
The entertainment sector is among
the top job-generating and skillsupporting
sectors. It has played a role
in instilling the concept of
volunteering, and in linking job
seekers to businessmen.
Last year the GEA said that
infrastructure investments over the
next decade would reach SR240
The AU's trade commissioner, Albert Muchenga, has
expressed his confidence that the necessary ratifications
will be obtained before the next AU summit, in Addis
Ababa on February 10-11. "We are welcoming the
concrete beginning of the journey to create one African
market," Muchenga said last year at the Kigali summit.
"We are saying goodbye to the era of small, isolated and
fragmented small markets.
billion ($64 billion), contributing
SR18 billion to annual GDP and
generating 224,000 new jobs by 2030.
As part of the Public Investment
Fund (PIF) program, the fund recently
announced the launch of the
Development and Investment
Entertainment Co. (DIEC), with an
initial capitalization of SR10 billion,
which will act as an operational body
as well as an investor in the Kingdom's
entertainment sector. The company
will also be responsible for building
and operating theme parks and
entertainment villages, with the first
project to be inaugurated this year.
The GAE and DIEC have expressed
their interest in building strong
relationships and expanding
networking with international
companies and individuals with
experience in planning, development
and management in entertainment,
cultural and tourism destinations. The
Kingdom is particularly interested in
city planning and development to
integrate tourism and entertainment,
and to provide training and capacity
building for its human resources.
With government plans to expand
the entertainment sector, there are
massive opportunities over the next
outstanding: "Ministers of trade must
now submit schedules of tariff
concessions and specific commitments
on trade in services to the Assembly at the
32nd AU summit in Addis Ababa [in
February]. These schedules require the
liberalization of 90% of products by each
state, as well as a list of sensitive products
that are to be temporarily exempted.
"For trade in services, scheduling will
call for a deep review of the regulatory
framework of the identified sectors, in
view of preparing, sub-sector by subsector,
mode by mode, the initial market
access offers [that] will then be subject to
negotiations.
"The second phase will establish the
rules for continental investment,
intellectual property and competition
policy, the latter critical for restraining
monopolies in larger economies. The
deadline for this phase is January 2020."
Given that there are at least 49
countries involved in these upcoming
negotiations, that deadline seems
ambitious, to say the least.
The AfCFTA is a compelling idea, and
one that has captured the imagination of
African leaders - as evidenced by their
widespread agreement to the concept.
But to obtain that agreement, the AU has
so far avoided the really difficult
conversations around the nitty-gritty of
the deal. These conversations have the
potential to derail the trade deal, and are
almost guaranteed to drag on for far
longer than the 12 months that have been
allocated. For now, then, businesses are
advised not to bank on the
implementation of a continental freetrade
area any time soon.
Source : Asia times
That’s entertainment: New opportunities to enjoy KSA
BASIl M.K. Al-ghAlAyINI
As part of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) program, the fund recently
announced the launch of the Development and Investment
Entertainment Co. (DIEC), with an initial capitalization of SR10 billion,
which will act as an operational body as well as an investor in the
Kingdom's entertainment sector. The company will also be responsible
for building and operating theme parks and entertainment villages,
with the first project to be inaugurated this year.
decade for international companies.
These opportunities can be found in
areas such as integrated solutions for
theatrical productions, broadcasting,
gaming, software and applications,
development of theme parks, resorts,
hotels and restaurants.
And since the government is seeking
to increase the participation of its
citizens in sports from 13 percent to 40
percent by 2030, investment
opportunities in sports facilities and
games solutions are expected to
increase, creating more chances for
private and foreign partnerships.
Consulting, operations, event
planning and promotion, training and
human resources development and
transportation can also add value to
public entertainment and provide
prospects for international companies.
This shifting landscape will continue
to create exciting opportunities for
established players and emerging
professionals alike.
Source : Arab news