Foreign consultant-dependent projects need to end: Planning adviser
"Many projects have incurred unnecessarily high costs. These could have been done at a lower cost, based on actual needs, but that did not happen," he said
Bangladesh has followed a flawed policy for many years, taking as many loans as possible from development partners as well as bringing in foreign consultants for projects, Planning Adviser Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud said today (December 1).
"As a result, many projects have incurred unnecessarily high costs. These could have been done at a lower cost, based on actual needs, but that did not happen," he said at a press conference after the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) meeting at the NEC Conference Room in the capital's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
Mentioning the cost of bringing these consultants, the planning adviser said many technical assistance projects bring no real benefit.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
"Foreign consultants come, sit in our offices, take up space, enjoy hospitality, stay four years and then leave with no value added," Wahiduddin said.
"I have seen this repeatedly in my career. We need to free ourselves from these foreign consultant-dependent projects," he added.
However, the planning adviser also acknowledged the need for foreign consultancy, but admitted the top-tier ones are expensive.
"Bangladesh does, of course, need foreign expertise in some areas, such as technology upgrading, advanced garment technologies, export diversification, microchip production and various assembly industries," he said.
"But the problem is that those who are truly international-standard engineers or top-tier finance experts are expensive. They hold major jobs abroad."
"So what happens is this: the foreign 'development studies' or 'village studies' consultants, those with limited job opportunities in their own countries, are the ones who come to our projects. They focus on soft social issues, work with our data, but show little interest in hard technical or industrial development skills," he said.
"Their interest lies in telling us how to make Bangladesh's small everyday matters marginally better, adding oil to an already oily head. They want to advise us on how to reduce child marriage further in Bangladesh, how to promote various forms of social work, all soft, behavioural issues. Because those who come from abroad for this work do not have employment opportunities in their own countries in these fields," he further said.
"For years, this is the kind of consultant we have been getting," the planning adviser added.
