by SALEEM SAMAD
When India promptly felicitated Bangladesh for holding a “free and fair” 12th National Elections, the government leaders in Bangladesh were visibly excited.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina on her “victory for a historic fourth consecutive term in the Parliamentary elections” and also said, “We are committed to further strengthen our enduring and people-centric partnership with Bangladesh.”
On the eve of the 75th Republic Day of India, a Bangladesh business daily Share Biz in Bangla publishes a damning first-page lead story “India is not among the top 10 development partners of Bangladesh”.
The story was published in the byline of a reporter Ismail Ali writes, that since the liberation war of Bangladesh, India is one of the friendly countries in South Asia.
Having the longest international border, the country always stood by its neighbour at various times. Bangladesh’s diplomatic and economic relations with India are also very deep.
However, there is a lopsided trade imbalance between the two countries. India is Bangladesh’s second-largest source of imports.
It is also worth noting that every year Bangladesh’s trade gap with India is widening rather than narrowing. In the Financial Year (FY) 2021-22, for example, Bangladesh imported commodities worth US$14.58 billion from India, while its exports to that country were merely US$1.8 billion.
Every day, thousands of Bangladesh nationals travel to India for medical treatment, been lagging business and pleasure. The two countries have shared the same history, culture and tradition for centuries during the Moghuls and British colonial era.
An estimated US $5 billion annually is remitted to India by documented and undocumented Indian expats working in Bangladesh. Similarly, thousands of economic migrants work in India as menial labourers.
Although India boasts of Bangladesh being a development partner and heightened bilateral relations, which both countries reiterate on all occasions.
The largest country in South Asia is not on the list of top 10 development partners of Bangladesh. India has been lagging in foreign economic assistance to Bangladesh since its independence.
India has provided nominal economic assistance to Bangladesh for 52 years from financial year (FY) 1971-72 to FY 2022-23. This information has emerged in the latest report of the Economic Relations Department (ERD), a government department which negotiates foreign economic assistance.
According to ERD’s report, Bangladesh’s foreign debt has reached US $92.367 billion in the 52 years since independence. At this time, Bangladesh received US $30.105 billion in various grants.
The total development assistance received is US $122.472 billion. Of this, $7.031 billion came from food aid, $10.908 billion from product aid and $104.533 billion from project aid.
The World Bank has provided the most assistance to Bangladesh among any single international multilateral donor agency, amounting to $28.446 billion. It is 23.23 per cent of the total development cooperation.
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