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Sunlight is lasting solution to power crisis
Engineer A R Khan
There has been a chronic shortage of power generation in Bangladesh for decades. At present there is a shortage of power of about 1500 to 2000 MW during the peak hours in the country. As a result large area in the country goes without power supply every day. Industries do not get adequate power supply and production suffers. Official sources say supplies in many areas are routinely order to save the national grid system from tripping due to overload.
Installation of a number of new power generation plants have become a necessity to bridge the gap between expanding demand and generation capacity of power. For many reasons including the lack of adequate resources so many power generating power plants cannot be installed immediately. Besides, many of the existing plants have grown quite old and many of them have to be scrapped in the near soon. The country is, therefore, in the grip of severe power shortage, which requires to be solved. Under this situation it appears to be the right time to look for developing the solar power system as an alternative source of electricity.
Solar electricity is a renewable form of energy which is produced by using sun light as 'fuel'. The source of sun light is endless. So prospects of using this alternative source of power are very practical. Decades ago when cost of Solar Panel was prohibitive, this was not considered as a commercially viable option. But now a days the cost of solar panel has come down considerably and a number of countries have started using solar power in an attempt to be less dependent on conventional power by using fossil fuel.
Fossil fuel reserve is likely to be exhausted within a period of half a century of so as the experts predict. By generating power from sun light at a considerably less cost than in the past, it could very well replace fossil fuel as an alternate but renewable source of power. This could be considered as a prime option for mankind to sustain its way of life.
These days solar power can be used in domestic as well as commercial levels. Indian entrepreneurs with Government support have been able to install of solar power generation system with over 5 MW capacity. The governments in India and Nepal are providing incentives to encourage people to use solar power. In India, the railway authorities are running their signaling system by solar power.
Bangladesh scene
For a decade or so a handful of private entrepreneurs in Bangladesh are working in this new field. With their efforts solar power systems are being successfully used in remote areas of the country in home lighting, where no grid power is available. Also many of the grid power users have come forward for using this system as standby source of electricity because of frequent power outages in the power supply system.
In Bangladesh Railway alone, prospects of using this renewable source of electricity is very bright. Crores of taka have been spent for modernisation of railway stations and other facilities. But frequent power outages have frustrated such efforts as frequent power failures did allow the modern computerized system to work uninterruptedly. Essential service like ticketing is stopped while hundreds of passengers are waiting before the ticketing window. At night situation often becomes worse. The entire facility plunges into darkness. The system runs run into chaos, forcing railway officials are to look for candles and lanterns.
For several years people in our Country are hunting for alternative solution to power crisis that they have to face often. Some have purchased IPS and others have installed small engine driven generating sets. None of these have proved to be a viable alternative of grid power. An IPS has time limitation. Its battery requires occasional charging that requires power supply. Thus if the power outage lasts for longer period, the IPS becomes useless.
In view of the circumstances stated, the solar power could become a viable and dependable option for overcoming the power crisis. This is also becoming a popular option all over the world.
Meanwhile, apparently to encourage the local entrepreneurs to go for solar power, the government has taken the initiative and allowed duty-free import of solar panel into the country. Now it is high time for both the private and public sectors to come forward in using this system for overall benefit of the Country.
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How to save the mom-pop
investor from the Saudis?
Share Shah
Once again the date has passed by and there is no Saudi respite on sight. The much acclaimed Prince Bandar or his emissaries have not yet come to honour their promise. The bidders for Rupali Bank in turn wanted much more than our Privatization Commission could give. They wanted everything which is not an honorable act. We may now expect that the Saudi businessman will eventually disappear blaming us for not giving what was never promised by us.
A while ago we heard that he was the highest bidder for the 67.26 per cent of the shares at a price of $ 330 million. We were impressed and assumed that the tender which had involved international consultants along with several pleasure trips by PC bosses to key cities for a 'road show' would be water tight. It now appears that we were wrong as the result now show. Obviously the tender document was not close ended thereby giving the buyer opportunity to fool Bangladesh.
For some reason the Prince was not happy with what he was getting. He wanted more in fact all the remaining equity the government held. The government indulged him and promised to give him 26 per cent at the same rate amounting $ 128 million. I have tried hard to find out what will happen to small investors now holding 6.74 per cent of the shares which were originally floated decades ago. Surely the Prince does not want these shares otherwise there would have been an offer!
The Rupali Bank deal has been going on for nearly a year. The information which was in the press led thousands of mom and pop investors rush to buy the shares which rose to as high as Taka 2500 nearing the bid price of over Taka 2600. Now the shares are plummeting. Who should the public blame? Why is the Securities & Exchange Commission not doing anything? Is it because dogs do not eat dog meat! SEC has never investigated ICB so how will it investigate the Privatization Commission.
Only recently SEC pounced upon a small company which is said to have made 'imaginary' deal with a Saudi business group. The revelation of this rumour real or imaginary help shoot up the price of the shares. According to the media it was 'discovered' that the company CEO along with a fellow perpetrator had forged emails in support of the so called Saudi business deal. The market suffered and many investors were fooled by the fake information.
The matter is now reported to be under prosecution by SEC. The most interesting aspect of the legal process is the evidence of emails. The person said to have fabricated the emails was not a part of the company according to the press. Therefore the SEC took the wise decision to prosecute him as someone who assisted the CEO in the crime under our penal law. The interesting aspect would be to see how the prosecution and the defense deal with electronic information as an evidential material. What may appear to be logical and straightforward to the regulator may not be so in the eyes of law.
The latest Saudi scandal deals once again with a hypothetical deal with a commercial bank. The prices of the company's shares suddenly shot up on the basis of rumours leaked by the staff of the company. While the CEO and board members have denied the rumours it definitely appears that they are not very competent in keeping the information, real or imaginary, safe. In fact according to the statement appearing in a daily newspaper, they definitely are very confused about the concept of 'insider dealing.'
One may now expect more of the same as the market now seems to be gaining momentum. The regulators should now watch not the people they lawfully regulate but all those who come along for a quick ride. A fair attracts all those who serve the fair, like the sellers of victuals, toys, games, cloths etc. But along comes the pickpocket, the con artist, the thief to do in the people. A good regulator must be able to do just that-discover the new and old entrants with new schemes and tricks.
The present mad rush will undoubtedly awaken many a board rooms to rush for IPO or new schemes. Many imaginary deals-takeover and makeover shall be spuriously leaked out. Furtive maneuvers undertaken to make the media believe new things are going on. The trickery of men has not changed much in the past four hundred years of capital market, only the mode has changed. New high tech inputs may eludes the public to accept what they cannot understand. The regulator must remain vigilant.
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Reforming global economic governance
Martin Khor
The inequities and inadequacies of the global economic system and the need to reform global economic governance so that developing countries have more say was the subject of the Kuala Lumpur Roundtable on Effective Global Governance last week.
It was organised by Malaysia's Foreign Ministry as part of its contribution to the Helsinki Process on Globalisation and Democracy, an initiative led by the governments of Finland and Tanzania to bridge the North-South divide.
The Roundtable, which brought together 80 experts and representatives of about 10 governments as well as non-governmental organisations, discussed globalisation, the trade regime, the international financial system, strengthening the role of the United Nations, and national development strategies.
Kicking off the discussion, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said that global economic inequities have worsened under globalisation and technological change.
The importance of global governance was firmly established with the emergence of globalisation, he said, adding: "The UN, the WTO (World Trade Organisation), IMF (International Monetary Fund) and World Bank have attained the status of global government having a bearing on our lives, and which could make us or break us as a nation. It is therefore imperative for us to also have a hand in the decision-making process in these global institutions."
The Minister pointed to a double standard in intellectual property (IP). He said that in World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), developed countries are pressing developing countries to adopt a high standard of intellectual property rights. Developing countries are asked to honour the IP of transnational companies, but the traditional knowledge and biological resources of developing countries are not recognised.
Most of the global institutions are powerful enough to dictate terms and conditions to governments, which now have less and less space to manoeuvre in formulating their own national policies as they are subjected to interpretations, treaties, conventions and protocols which limit their sovereign actions, said Syed Hamid.
Effective global governance should be about ensuring a just and equitable order that allows all parties to realise their full potential and not dominance by a few players.
Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said that globalisation generates unbalanced outcomes, with many countries not sharing its benefits and having little or no voice at all in shaping the global wealth-generating process. He called for coordinated changes including a reform of the global economic system and strengthening governance institutions at local and global levels, to correct the politically unsustainable global imbalances.
The dimensions of global governance include the decision-making process and the nature and effects of multilateral rules and practices, said Yilmaz Akyuz, former Chief Economist of the UN Conference on Trade and Development.
The current world order is marked by asymmetry and imbalances which benefit mainly the developed countries. For example, they protect areas in their interest such as agriculture, labour movements and technology transfer, while asking the South to liberalise in industrial goods, capital flows and FDI.
The current globalisation arrangements restrict governments from regulating financial markets, and the policy space of developing countries is being increasingly constrained by global rules in the trade regime or through loan conditions of the international financial institutions. However, there are still degrees of policy autonomy and countries are pursuing diverse policies even though they face the same constraints.
IMF, WB
The IMF and the World Bank have reached historic lows in credibility and relevance, and their mandates should be reformed, said Akyuz.
The IMF should focus on ensuring global financial stability, and leave development and trade policy to other institutions. The World Bank should become a genuine development bank and not be involved in developing countries' "structural adjustment" but focus on project funding.
Folke Sundaman, senior official in Finland's Foreign Ministry and chair of the Helsinki Process's steering group, said that there was a paradigm shift taking place in global governance, as the existing Washington Consensus (that emphasised inflation targeting and financial liberalisation) had not been able to deliver results in growth or employment.
A new paradigm is emerging that recognises the need for a broader view of the economy that was not confined to inflation targeting and how best to govern globalisation to make it positive for all, said Sundaman.
Trade regime
On the trade regime, the international trade expert Bhagirath Lal Das said that the multilateral trade system provides developing countries some security against unilateral actions of stronger countries. However, there are imbalances in the rules, operations and decision-making system of the WTO, which do not favour the developing countries.
For example, the "national treatment" principle prevents giving preferences to domestic products and this makes it difficult for weaker countries to upgrade their production structure.
The agriculture agreement enables huge subsidies to continue in developed countries, while developing countries also have to restrict their subsidies as well as reduce their tariffs significantly. And developing countries also face protectionist devices such as anti-dumping measures and non-trade barriers.
Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith said that the WTO remains first and foremost focused on its original mandate of liberalisation and had failed to make the transition to a trade organisation with a significant development orientation. He stressed that it is this transition that would ensure that the interests of developing countries are promoted.
The WTO should not prioritise market access as a goal, but prioritise other elements that developing countries are interested in. The structure of decision-making, in the WTO as well as in the negotiations process, also requires serious attention.
In the discussion, participants agreed that if the WTO's current Doha Round were truly developmental in content, then its conclusion would benefit the developing countries. However, many expressed the view that there is a lack of development content in the major proposals on the table.
The multilateral trade system thus needs to be reformed, with more democratic decision-making processes in which all developing countries can participate; with amendments to the rules; and with fairer implementation of these rules; and the WTO secretariat should be more representative (in terms of staffing and management) and more supportive of developing countries. The WTO should be much more development-oriented in its approach, rules and results.
Several participants were also of the view that it is inappropriate to extend the mandate of the multilateral trading system to non-trade issues such as intellectual property and services (which are already in the WTO) and investment rules, government procurement and labour standards.
On bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), participants had serious concerns in developing countries that FTAs involving a powerful developed country and a weaker developing country can lead to many disadvantages and problems for the developing countries.
There was broad agreement among participants that they were not against liberalisation but were in favour of developing countries managing liberalisation in a strategic and phased manner that supports their development.
Intellectual property
The Roundtable also discussed intellectual property (IP). Prof. Gurdial Singh Nijar of University Malaya's Law Faculty said that previously IP policies were determined as part of national policies and countries would decide on the balance between the monopoly terms granted to IP holders and the public interest.
But with IP becoming part of the WTO, the policy space of developing countries has been restricted, as they have had to adopt higher IP standards, which tilted the balance in favour of IP holders, with detrimental effects on social and economic development.
Participants pointed to how prices of medicines have increased, and developing countries find it more difficult to upgrade technology. At the same time, there is misappropriation of biological resources and traditional knowledge.
Developing countries should take pro-active measures at national level as well as collectively in international negotiations to make use of existing pro-development flexibilities in IP regimes, as well as to reform the regimes to be more development-oriented.
Malaysia's Central Bank Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz spoke on the global financial architecture. She pointed to new problems in the financial system, including unregulated cross-border capital flows, new financial instruments like derivatives which represent a risk to the global financial economy, and greater inter-dependence among countries which increased the risk of contagion.
There was need for a reform of the financial architecture to deal with these new issues. But little reform has been achieved at the global level. However, she said, there has been more cooperation at the Asian regional level, with a surveillance mechanism, macro-management system, crisis management and resolution framework and capacity building.
Former Indonesian Economy Minister Dorodjatun Kuntjuro-Jakri agreed that financial integration had increased the risks of contagion, but that the changes had benefited the rich countries which made them reluctant to carry out the needed changes.
In the discussion, participants agreed on the need for a global system to manage financial flows and to regulate financial institutions and especially powerful financial instruments such as hedge funds and private equity funds.
Developments of new technology and financial instruments have overtaken and outrun regulatory frameworks, and thus this demands the creation of new structures of global financial governance and regulations.
In the absence of a global regulatory framework, developing countries should pursue regional financial cooperation. At the same time, they should also cooperate to attempt a reform of the international system.
Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN in New York, Munir Akram, who chairs the Group of 77, gave a comprehensive account of the importance of the United Nations, and the efforts of developing countries to maintain and strengthen its role.
He said that the UN has made major contributions in developing norms and standards in the economic, social and humanitarian fields. However, the UN's role has been sidelined by major powers in recent years.
Nevertheless, the current decline in the IMF and World Bank, as well as the globalisation process itself which requires better coordination, provide opportunities for enhancing the UN's economic and social role. The UN is well placed to bring about more coherence and coordination in global economic governance.
In the discussion on national development strategies, participants agreed that 'national policy space' (the ability to choose between various development policies) had been constrained by global markets and global rules.
-Third World Network Features
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