EYE ON CHINA: Watching Chinese Development

Chief editor of Bangladeshi newspaper, The News Today, Reazuddin Ahmed, first visited China 30 years ago and at the time noted Bangladesh and China were in similar stages of economic development. Since then he has returned to China eight times and witnessed China's growth while back home things were changing very little.

He is now one of a growing number of critics who are asking if there are lessons that can be learnt from China's development strategy.

The interesting thing was that the Chinese leaders were so pragmatic they offered the foreign investors the domestic market of China and it was very exciting for them. But China wanted transfer of technology in exchange for opening the domestic market.

Number two is private initiating with political stability, with social stability. Bangladesh has opened up and allowed private initiative but lacks political stability, social stability.

Thirdly China has acted as a facilitator to the foreign investors and the private investors. That is the secret of Chinese success in attracting huge foreign investment.

China's success at lifting people above the poverty line was due to their policy of development with equality, which is lacking in many countries even in Bangladesh. There is a digital divide between the rural areas and the urban areas but China is trying to develop the underdeveloped areas by transferring the resources from the developed areas.

So I think the secret of Chinese success in pulling 400 million people from the poverty line is just development with equality.

In the Kawran Bazzar below The News Today offices I asked local vendors if they believed there were lessons Bangladesh could learn from China's economic development.

My name is Bozlu, I live in a slum near the train line. I'm a fishmonger, running my fish business inside the park in Kawran Bazar. What can we learn from China? China is a good country from what I heard, a beautiful country, with very beautiful products that we use in Bangladesh. But what can we learn from China if we can't go there, we can't learn anything. Now I don't need to learn anything from China because I am an old person. We have nothing to learn.

My name is Saiful Islam. I'm working as a manager in this shop. What we can lean from China is how to develop by using technology. If you give them any sample they will make it for you. If we learn their technique and do the same way making our own products then we will benefit.

Taking a rickshaw ride through Dhaka's streets its clear that the country would benefit from the kind of development seen in China over the past 30 years. However the question remains whether the China development model would work in a country with a very different cultural and political makeup?

Video: D J Clark

Assisted by: Muhammad Aminuzzaman

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About D J Clark

D J Clark has worked worldwide as a photojournalist for more than 20 years. He specialises in working with international development NGOs to highlight social, political and environmental issues through long term photography projects. D J Clark researches and writes about photography as a vehicle for social change, the subject that drives both his photographic and academic work. More recently his work has concentrated on Multi Media news production.