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Write an essay on "COVID-19 & the Banking Sector of Bangladesh" within (+/-) 250 words.

Created: 1 year ago | Updated: 9 months ago

                                                                                                COVID-19 & the Banking Sector of Bangladesh

The banking sector in Bangladesh has been diligently navigating the unprecedented COVID- 19 crisis since the beginning. Initially, the sector has successfully met the cash flow challenges in the economy during the general holiday (shutdown) period with some regulatory relaxations in policy rates. Now the sector has been entrusted with the prime responsibility of implementing most of the stimulus packages declared by the government. This is not the end here. In a Post COVID world, a strong banking sector will also be needed for a strong recovery. To prepare for this, banks now should respond to the changing customer demands in the new normal, while fostering efficiency and creating resilience in the challenging operating environment. 

All measures initially taken to respond to the crisis have begun to slowly ease with the resumption of normal operations. As the risk of a second wave' remains, it's high time for financial institutions to look back at the lessons learned in the changing dynamics in recent months, for gaining operational excellence in the days to come. During the strict lockdown period when operations in almost all sectors had come to a standstill, banks/NBFIS (Non Bank Financial Institutions) continued their operations to ensure the flow of money in the economy. Many banks/FIs (Financial Institutions), during this time, quickly adapted to operational change and allowed their employees to work from home providing access to core banking software and other technologies. Some were more successful than others in doing so. The banking sector has now been playing a crucial role in distributing the government's various fiscal stimulus packages. The banks have to be more agile and vigilant in the same breath to fulfill this responsibility as ensuring repayment of these loans also rests on their shoulders. So far, progress has been achieved in the pursuit of shaping the recovery and helping their customers rebuild their financial security and business health. Banks now need to continue playing this significant role for an uncertain period of time. 

With the shrinking global as well as local economy due to increased unemployment - individuals facing extreme hardships and businesses struggling to survive unaddressed for the immediate future. For days to come, mainly focusing on things that really matter many challenges remain for banks to survive will help reshape the sector and ultimately support a stronger recovery. Among them are serving customers innovatively with upgraded products and services through digital channels, transforming the work process and environment, reducing the non performing assets, boosting capital, booking quality assets, and practising sustainability & governance. 

From the customer service perspective, customers' focuses have been swayed somewhat from the productive activity to only daily survivals amid the COVID-19 economic downturns. So, helping them means to help them get back that focus and keep it linked to productive economic activities only. Since the crisis began here, banks have been trying to be a seamless enabler of that activity. For example, with the closure of branches and offices in the wake of COVID-19, many banks shifted to digital services-- from account opening to others. Importantly, customers also adapted well to these changes. This enabled them to manage their financial needs in the right way. That means being increasingly digital. So far, things went well, the challenge now for banks is to keep their customers on digital platforms after the pandemic ends and to integrate human touch and greater personalised service. The digital divide that exists in our society can pose a risk to the goal of making the banking service inclusive and available for all. The government must ramp up actions to remove this gap. 

From an operational perspective, COVID-19 has created an exciting, and unprecedented opportunity for transformational change by forcing banks to operate in a different way. To utilise the momentum emerging out of the crisis, banks need to revamp their intelligence system to analyse the lessons learned on the behaviour and preferences of their customers as well as employees in adaptability and willingness to change. The scope of the process, technology and security improvement need to be critically analysed. For example, in recent times many banks have been relatively successful and smooth in the transition of their back office functions remotely. But in the case of front office customers facing employees, it has created the real challenge. 

Finally, as a result of the pandemic, the economy has come to a sudden halt. Non performing loans may rise once the moratorium is withdrawn as the consequences on businesses and individuals seem to linger for an unknown period. While the banking industry has been suffering with NPLs persistently, the pandemic has caused a re-emergence of it. Probable increase in NPLs may weaken banks' balance sheets, hamper credit growth, cause capital depletion. Joint action with the government and regulators is required to control the probable NPL growth. Besides, banks should now critically review their assets quality to identify loans that are non-performing and need restructuring and build up provisions proactively to face any contingent situation. Regulators may come up with a mix of policy measures such as merger and acquisition to separate good and bad assets of banks, and incorporation of the public asset management companies to help tackle the burdened assets of the banks. These may ease the problem and help build a resilient and strong banking sector to fight the impact of COVID-19.

Overall, the single digit lending rate effective from April 2020 has forced many banks to keep co minimisation and operational transformation high on the agenda. The pandemic has left no industry, economy or society untouched. Its effects will lay the foundation on how financial services wi evolve over the coming days and beyond. Banks must be the ambassador of change and act as catalyst to spread it in other social and economic forces for repairing the damage done by the pandemic and reshaping the economy. Now and over the next few months, coordinated measures by the government, regulators and the banks to strengthen the sector will determine how the nation emerge from this crisis.

9 months ago

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8 months ago

Cluster Villages

 

A majority of the Bangladesh population are farmers who are settled in villages. They toil to make both ends meet and produce crops for the entire nation. Bangladesh has about 68,000 villages, which are scattered throughout the country.  A village is called the rural part of the country. It is called rural because it does not have modern facilities like cities. The main occupation of the villagers is farming. They are the primary source of the nation's agricultural production.

 

Description of Villages

Villages have either tiny hamlets of thatched huts or large settlements of tiled roofs, stones, and brick homes. An impression has been created by artists and filmmakers that an Indian village is a simple cluster of mud-plastered walls, shaded by trees, overlooking the large expanses of green fields with a few people moving slowly and of course, bullock carts. They portray a village woman with a pot on her head and walking gracefully, her skirt swaying gently. The reality is that a village is the hub of nonstop activity, with their stronger work ethics. Agriculture is tough and requires hard work. The villagers work very hard and are always trying to find innovative methods of growing wheat, rice, and lentils. 

 

Importance of Village

The village is important because it is the primary sector of agricultural production for our country. The village is the backbone of Bangladesh economy. It also plays a major role in maintaining the ecological balance of the environment. Villages are mostly covered with trees and plants. They are covered with green grasslands. One can see acres of green fields as far as the eyes could see. They provide shelter to many animals. 

Life in Village

The village life is full of contentment and happiness, as people are not in a hurry like in city life. Village people live a very simple life. Villages are mostly situated far from the hustle and bustle of urban civilization. The beauty of nature can be experienced in a village as it is surrounded by trees, flowers, mountains, streams, and farmlands. There is no pollution in the village and one can feel the freshness in the breeze. The demands of the villagers are not too high but they are still deprived of basic facilities. Clean drinking water, electricity, health center, schools, proper sanitation are a few facilities that are lacking in the villages. Their poverty is always visible in the atmosphere. 

Conclusion

My village is a small abode for happy people.  Here they live in harmony and peace. The village people are very hardworking and thus they must have a good source of upliftment. Like the village’s schools and clinics should be maintained and increased in number. The farmers should be facilitated by helping them to leverage their sales, make them notified about the modern techniques used in farming, and give them compensation and knowledge of the true market price of their crops. Thus, I would request governmental authorities to come forward and uplift the medical, educational, and farming facilities in the village.

8 months ago

Problems of urban living in Bangladesh

Cities in Bangladesh are faced with the challenges of rapid population increase characterized by crises such as lack of economic dynamism, governance failure, severe infrastructure and service deficiencies, inadequate land administration, massive slums and social breakdown. However, urban centers continue to grow, despite the severity of these obstacles. As a result, urban areas in Bangladesh have exceptionally high population density, but relatively low economic density. High population density, combined with rapid urbanization, implies a large and fast-growing urban population to manage. Dhaka city, the largest urban conurbation in Bangladesh, is one of the most densely populated urban areas in the world. However, the economic density of Bangladesh’s urban areas (GDP or value-added per square km) is relatively low from an international perspective. Economic activity is concentrated in Dhaka and Chittagong. About 9% of the Bangladesh population lives in the Dhaka metropolitan area, which contributes to 36% of the country’s GDP. An additional 11% of the Bangladesh GDP is generated by Chittagong, the second-largest city and home to 3% of the population. The economic gap between Dhaka and Chittagong compared to other medium  and small-size cities is large and widening.

 

Bangladesh needs to build an urban space that is capable of innovating, is better connected and more livable in order to make cities competitive. Bangladesh’s urban space is falling behind in all three of these drivers of competitiveness. The Dhaka metro area needs to evolve into a diversified economy with skilled human resources and an innovation capacity fueled by the cross-fertilization of ideas typical of large metropolitan areas. Dhaka metro area also needs to be better connected internally and with its peri-urban areas, and both Dhaka and Chittagong have to strengthen their connection to the global economy. Improved connectivity within Bangladesh’s system of cities is also important for productivity and export competitiveness. The development of an economically dynamic urban space, in particular in the Dhaka metro region, has occurred at the expense of livability. The livability of the urban space will become an even more binding constraint to sustained growth as Bangladesh transitions to a new business model based on higher-value industries and services, which need a highly skilled and internationally mobile workforce. This  is a tall order for Bangladesh, but planning needs to start today for Bangladesh’s cities to become more competitive in future.

 

Urbanization have crucial role to play in the economic development of Bangladesh. The circumstances under which population in Dhaka and Chittagong are growing without proportionate infrastructural development will begin to wipe out most of the gains associated with urbanization. That is, relative high levels of urbanization may not be sufficient to ensure higher levels of economic welfare in Bangladesh. This has happened in Latin America with levels of urbanization, above 80%, yet with real per capita incomes about a third that of developed nations. It could happen in Bangladesh as well unless the urban managers rise from their prolonged slumber.

8 months ago

My school days

School is said to be a temple of knowledge, the very first place that introduced you to the world and more so your own self. My school life is all about the memories I deeply cherish. The memories of not only the fun, friendship and all the sport and extracurricular but also the way it helped me find my interests. I owe it all to my school life. It has made me who I am today.

My school life has been full of different experiences over the years. It gave various opportunities to develop not only my scholastic abilities but also the art and sport side. It supported me in my sports as well as exposed me to numerous types of people. All of this accounted to make me understand how to behave socially and in building a personality which I have today.

There are numerous things that make school life the best phase in one’s life. All of this eventually is because we are young to do mistakes again and again till we realize, dumb enough to not think about people and do what we feel like doing, curious to know everything we can and most importantly still not exposed and contaminated with the evil feelings of this world. And all of this makes us build a personality of our own.

8 months ago