From: adnan@pender.ee.upenn.edu (Adnan Choudhury)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bangladesh
Subject: News (UPI)
Date: 16 Nov 92 18:06:28 GMT
Reply-To: adnan@pender.ee.upenn.edu (Adnan Choudhury)
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

From netnews.upenn.edu!rutgers!ub!decwrl!looking!clarinews Mon Nov 16 12:59:45 EST 1992
Article: 8602 of clari.news.gov.international
From: clarinews@clarinet.com (UPI)
SUBJECT: WORLD BANK PRESIDENT GREETED WITH PROTESTS IN BANGLADESH

	DHAKA, Bangladesh (UPI) -- Scattered protests and demonstrations
greeted World Bank president Lewis T. Preston when he flew into Dhaka
Sunday for his first-ever visit to Bangladesh.
	Dhaka University students chanted slogans denouncing the three-day
Preston visit, as Finance Minister Saifur Rahman and his wife gave the
visiting official a red carpet welcome at the Zia International Airport.
	Preston told reporters at the airport that he was grateful to the
Bangladeshi government for inviting him, but students demonstrating
outside the National Press Club and Dhaka University campus were not
pleased.
	``The policies the bank imposed on us since we became a member in
1972 have not achieved anything except deeper economic crises and
greater pauperization of the people,'' said student leader Rupesh
Chowdhury at a protest rally in the city center.
	In the past 20 years, the Washington-based World Bank has been the
top provider of financial aid to Bangladesh, having granted soft-term
loans to the tune of $3.842 billion. Japan comes second in the donor
list, with $3.1 billion, of which 30 percent is in direct grants,
followed by the United States with $2.4 billion, of which 71 percent are
grants.
	Preston praised Bangladesh for the resilience shown by the people and
government during last year's cyclone which left at least 140,000 dead
along the country's southeastern coastline.
	``The World Bank wants to help Bangladesh prepare for future
challenges by offering credits to improve cyclone protection and
shelter,'' Preston told reporters at the airport.
	The World Bank, which coordinates all foreign aid to this country of
110 million with an per capita income of $210, has come under strong
attack from economists and activists for the conditions attached to aid
pledges.
	The bank's conditions for aid include total privatization of all
state-owned enterprises, sacking of some 150,000 workers from the public
sector, slashing of import duties, and a cut in government spending.
	Despite following the directives, economic observers say, Bangladesh
has not been able to record much growth. Gross domestic product in the
1980s grew 3.6 percent annually, while population grew at 2.7 percent.
	``The World Bank does not only control the economy of this country,
it also controls its politics,'' said opposition leader Abul Bashar in a
seminar Sunday. ``The world bank is running a parallel government in
this country by dictating policies to the elected, legal one.''
	Labor leaders claimed at the seminar that World Bank's policy of
privatization has been a failure in Bangladesh, as most factories have
closed down.

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"If there's nothing wrong with me,      | ADNAN CHOUDHURY
then maybe there's something wrong 	| adnan@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
with the universe!"			| adnan@pender.ee.upenn.edu
              - Dr. Beverly Crusher     | University of Pennsylvania
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