Technology adoption and competitiveness for sustainable industrial economy

For addressing competitiveness, technologies adoption and diffusion has been an age-aged system. Certainly, technologies adoption increases top quality, decreases wastage, and lowers the demand for labour too. Therefore, competitiveness will increase. Nonetheless, does it present a sustainable remedy to bolster the industrial economic climate out of labour-based mostly benefit addition system?

All through the colonial period of time, the Indian subcontinent was offered the purpose of supplying organic means to feed the British’s industrial financial state, while the British sector was processing those normal sources with their suggestions and labour.   A single of Bangladesh’s big export of all-natural methods for the duration of that period of time was jute. Subsequently, jute emerged as the primary source of earning overseas currency, buying golden fiber title. Like other areas of the Indian subcontinent, Bangladesh was making use of that export earned international currency to import industrial goods from the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe. Just after independence in 1947, the Indian subcontinent took the technique of importing and adopting engineering from Europe to method domestically made natural means with labor. Therefore, we uplifted our all-natural resource supplier place to importing technological know-how for setting up community industrial capability out of natural resource and labor. Considering the fact that then, technological know-how adoption and diffusion have been the plan concentration for building the industrial financial state.

Of study course, in the absence of imported know-how, we cannot add value to purely natural methods with labour. But has the policy of supporting the import and diffusion of technologies been assisting us in establishing sustainable ability of value addition out of labour?

In generating industrial outputs, we need to have three significant inputs: concepts, intermediary inputs, and labour. Of class, we also need electricity, drinking water, and numerous a lot more. Economic worth generation is a functionality of concepts and objects. We combine objects like normal resource, strength, labour, and others to develop economic value via concepts. So significantly, our technique has been to import tips. We import strategies in different types, starting from cash equipment, middleman parts to product style and design. In addition to enhancing economic benefit, suggestions also reduce the prerequisite of objects, like labor. As a result, there has been ongoing reduction of labour need in developing each unit of industrial output. For illustration, in comparison to the 1980s, we need to have as reduced as 30 per cent of labour to create each unit of clothing. In actuality, labour requirement has been repeatedly eroding with the development of imported technologies adoption. As a consequence, the worth-added capacity of Bangladesh and quite a few other producing nations around the world has been shrinking. Subsequently, it is making downward strain on the market value of labour.

Does it mean that policy aid for know-how adoption and diffusion has been weakening Bangladesh’s industrial toughness? However, the two the theory and real-lifetime facts guidance this unpleasant actuality. Very well, what could be the cure? Should we sluggish down technological know-how adoption? Of study course, not.  If we do so, our competitiveness will be eroding fast, posing a risk to the industrial economy’s collapse.

Ideal immediately after 1947, it was a great start to start off the journey of developing an industrial economic system out of the import of cash machinery and solution style for adding worth through labour and organic resources. Till 1980s, our industrial outputs mainly focused the nearby marketplace by supplying regionally created import substitution. Through that time, labour content was quite higher. As a result, due to the large wage differential, producers could provide import substitution at a reduce charge. But this sort of an capacity to provide reduce price possibilities by way of sourcing of low-charge community labour has been shrinking. Due to the fact, both the labour content material and wage differential have been shrinking concurrently. For this reason, the strategy of establishing the industrial overall economy out of imported technologies has been weakening, achieving an unsustainable position. That’s why, there has been developing coverage assist for featuring tax differential and other incentives. Like import substitution, our success in developing an industrial economy out of export-oriented manufacturing is also hugely dependent on the import of technologies.  Of training course, considering that the 1980s, Bangladesh has made fairly a little bit of achievements in generating work opportunities in export-oriented manufacturing. But our price addition tactic has remained the same-small-charge labour. Like import substitution, export-oriented production is also shedding competitiveness for the very same purpose. To sluggish down the impact on export quantity, even a income incentive plan has been adopted.  

Information and theory of technology progression-developing substitution outcome on labor-propose that like numerous other building countries, Bangladesh can no lengthier maintain the growth of industrial economic system out of technological innovation import-based approach. Suppose tax differential, income incentives and all other supports are removed. In that scenario, it’s very very likely that the sheer profit of small-charge labour will not keep lots of of this country’s industrial units afloat. For this reason, it is not unfair to point out that labour-primarily based benefit addition to imported strategies has reached saturation.

The upcoming solution for Bangladesh is to increase worth to industrial outputs by way of suggestions. Following far more than 70 yrs of the stop of colonial rule and 50 decades of independence, it really is remarkably vital for Bangladesh to just take the following big step in developing the industrial financial system. This is about producing economic value out of domestically developed tips.  And we need to have to generate and trade strategies as element of merchandise and approach options in the globally linked competitive current market. The graduation of Bangladesh’s strategy and coverage for the industrial financial system from purely natural resource and labor to strategy has multidimensional advantages. Of study course, it also poses higher-amount problem.

Contrary to organic sources and labour, thought-primarily based benefit addition provides an exponential advancement route. The financial price generation out of strategies is not linearly minimal to purely natural resource inventory and the labour pool. On the other hand, the changeover to the strategy financial state is heading to make the demand from customers for participating a developing quantity of university graduates to deliver financial worth out of know-how as opposed to muscles. In addition to addressing graduate unemployment, worth addition as a result of tips seems to be Bangladesh’s only option to fulfill financial aspirations set for 2030 and 2041. Moreover, making a sector of strategies is crucial to develop additional with significantly less for conference sustainable enhancement plans.

It truly is really encouraging to note that Bangladesh’s improvement planners have touched on the significance and system of creating the changeover to the idea economic climate. In the 2041 standpoint prepare, the vision has been laid down. For using the eyesight to implementation, the lately launched 8th 5 Yr Prepare has given the strategic instructions of making the transition. It can be time to translate large-level instructions into policies and investments for continuing in the direction of implementation.   

M. Rokonuzzaman, Ph.D is tutorial and researcher on technologies, modern society and plan. [email protected]