桃   花   源   

 Peach Blossom Shangri-La 

 大家盡一點力來創造一個人間樂園 ∞ Let's all help to create a Shangri-La 

 

Introduction of a paper titled "Jute: Solution to Global Challenges and Opportunities of Bangladesh":

"Before 1980, jute was known as “The Golden Crop” of Bangladesh due to its immense contribution in the export market. Though India has more production of jute compared to Bangladesh, but the better quality of jute was always an advantage for Bangladesh that made it a monopolistic market due to its contribution in exports of around 80% in 1947-48 that within 1975-76, declined to just 25% (Banglapedia, 2015). In 2018 it was reported that Bangladesh produced around 1/3 of world’s total jute production (Islam R., 2018). Compared to other industries that exist in Bangladesh, jute has a very prominent future that sadly the government is unable to use properly. In Bangladesh, currently the major export sector is ready-made garments (RMG) which contributes to around 84.21% of the total with 4621 factories, 4.1 million workers and exports worth 40535.04 Million USD (BGMEA, 2020). Though RMG is the backbone of Bangladesh’s exports currently, it is also a drawback for its economy as Bangladesh is highly dependent on this one particular sector. Thus diversifying the exports is highly required to minimize risk in extreme situations. Bangladesh's jute industry had a labor force of 250,000 people earlier but now only 50,000 people work in its production (Al Jazeera, 2008). The major drawback Bangladesh faces in most industries is the lack of raw materials and skilled workforce. Starting from RMG, steel, electronics to pharmaceuticals – a big portion of its raw materials are imported. Thus, even though the country provides cheap labor it gets a significantly lower marginal profit. Jute, which is highly being ignored, can play a vital role as it is not produced in most countries because of the required weather and environment for producing it. It can be mostly produced in the Indian subcontinent area as geographically this is the ideal place for its production. Though it has been declining in years, the jute business is widely dominated by Bangladesh with 1.6 Million tons of production making it the 2nd largest producer of the cash crop (Indexbox, 2020)."

 

Jute: Solution to Global Challenges and Opportunities of Bangladesh (Niloy)

 

Abstract of a paper titled "Digital Contradictions in Bangladesh: Encouragement and Deterrence of Citizen Engagement via ICTs":

"The research outlined in this article explored the emergence of new-media-driven citizen participation in Bangladesh against a background of contradictory government policy approaches to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The government’s Digital Bangladesh initiative aims to make ICTs core to citizen empowerment and development at the national and local levels. At the same time, the “netizens” of Bangladesh are facing the challenges of a conservative ICT legal framework and aggressive state crackdowns on certain uses of new-media platforms Using online data-mining applications and visualization software, the research analyzed ways in which Twitter was widely adopted in Bangladesh during the Shahbag political mobilization of 2013. The research also looked at positive and negative uses of new media in recent years and the state’s draconian responses to new-media platforms and their users. The authors found that indiscriminate arrests, site blocks, and newly amended punitive measures have created hindrances to the development of a truly participatory digital space for communication."

 

Digital Contradictions in Bangladesh: Encouragement and Deterrence of Citizen Engagement via ICTs (Hussain)