Successive governments have stressed development of rural economy as a way of attaining overall growth as well as addressing poverty. The challenge has been devising an appropriate strategy to that end. A local NGO, Architecture Research and Development (ARD), has come up with a masterplan to establish 6,000 micro-economic zones across the country.
The proposal is a novel idea. Each zone may eventually involve 100 entrepreneurs, creating a network of 600,000 entrepreneurs, while 333 businesses and income-generating activities would be selected depending on local resources and demand.
At a time when global supply chains and transport costs remain uncertain, the idea that local people would act both as producers and consumers is sensible. Its emphasis on using existing rural haat-bazaars may reduce the need for costly land acquisition.
However, a masterplan of such magnitude cannot assume that the rural backyard is an empty slate. For decades, NGOs, microfinance institutions, cooperatives and government departments have independently supported dairy, poultry, fisheries, handicrafts, home-based food processing, seed production, nursery, tailoring and various income-generating activities.
Many have trained women and marginal farmers, formed borrower groups, developed market channels and created networks of field workers. But these activities often remain isolated, too small to bargain with buyers and lacking access to storage, quality certification, technology and branding.
The proposed centres could serve as common facilities for NGO-supported producers, cooperatives, SME clusters and entrepreneurs. Existing organisations, on their part, could provide social mobilisation, credit history, skills training and last-mile supervision.
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Such coordination would avoid duplication, lower the cost of implementation and convert scattered livelihood projects into durable local value chains. Notably, Bangladesh’s experience with economic zones is sobering, with close to a hundred such zones approved under the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA).
Energy and finance will decide whether the concept graduates from proposal to ecosystem. Though ARD mentions renewables, each zone’s energy design should reflect local resources. In livestock- and crop-intensive areas, biogas plants using cattle dung, poultry litter and farm waste could supply processing facilities and cold storages.
Financing should not rely on government alone. Entrepreneur shareholding, cooperatives, banks, microfinance and NGO networks, businesses should be mobilised.
The proposal is welcome, but its success will lie not in announcing a large number of new sites but in connecting, energising and financing the productive strengths that already exist in rural Bangladesh.
This approach would help to create a framework for rural development in Bangladesh, addressing the needs of local communities and promoting economic growth.
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