Branding Bangladesh: let’s not extend aid-bowl anymore

Bangladesh, an independent entity, has been in the global scene for the last forty years. Since then, we tried keep up the country’s name in various ways. Our platform has always been the war of independence. In all our initiatives, we’ve tried our best to disseminate the history of our liberation war and we certainly have become quite successful about it. The whole world now knows how hard we tried to be free. In a way, it’s been a great branding for us; we could inform the world what we are capable of.

Having said that, one question naturally raises in mind as to what have we done in order make the word “Bangladesh” familiar to the outer world. Almost all the developed and near-developed countries have been successful in branding the nation-state’s name. In our case, the question that is raised all the time is: how have we portrayed ourselves? Indeed, a million dollar question. So far, since 1971, no one can deny that we have been almost selling poverty and natural disasters. We always had a bowl in hand, appealing to the international community and seeking their assistance in keeping the Bangladeshi population to “float on the water with just their nose above it”.

Isn’t it true that we always sought for sympathy and empathy of the rich countries? Yes, the tendency has mostly been that. We have always been at the receiving end all these years. Our achievements, which are full of positive actions, have never been utilized in the global arena. However, the time has changed and we must realize that we can no longer remain what we were in the past years. The time to present us as a flood-prone country needs to be over.

For Bangladesh, the opportunities are many; we have garments, we have pharmaceuticals; we have handicrafts; we have shrimp; we have a thriving banking sector; we have UN troops – the list can go on. Other local industries have immensely grown here and they could be marketed in the international arena. In garments, “Made in Bangladesh” has already become a household name to the international customers. We need to utilize our possibilities for which there’s a lot to do. “Made in Bangladesh” brand can be a household name in every sector across the world.

First among the doable things comes the role of our foreign missions. Our missions abroad are in the right situation to promote our businesses in the respective countries. This is not a new appeal to our foreign missions; many have been asking them to promote Bangladeshi goods and services at the international level. But regrettably, the contribution of our missions is so poor that we can’t even evaluate their work. They need to pull up their socks and start strategising for promoting Bangladesh.

We need to understand that “we can produce products which other countries need” and our missions should be able sell those products in those countries where there’s a need for them. This writer has met several foreign ambassadors and high commissioners who are doing exactly the same. The personnel at the foreign missions need to understand the value of branding in this cut-throat era of economic diplomacy. They need to fathom no country is properly sovereign with being able to do good business with the outer world.

The media comes next. International experience suggests that there are two types of media feeds used in many countries: one, natural feed that runs the daily news and views; and two, the strategic feed. The natural feed will report on the events that take place without any bias, no matter whether there’s a violent political clash or huge number of deaths in a tornado. But the strategic feed would be planned – to promote something. Slogans such as ‘Malaysia, Truly Asia’ are part of the strategic feed. Bangladesh did try a few like ‘Visit Bangladesh before Foreigners Do’, but not much of work was done to make these slogans a reality. Moreover, we didn’t try to promote us through the media. Now that we’re experiencing a media boom in the country, there’s a huge scope that we can advocate for us through the media.

The state-owned BTV has a satellite channel which is broadcast globally. Why not start with having an English channel on BTV. There are many talented English-educated people in the country and they are quite capable of running a well-managed English channel for the country. Just imagine what NHK, Voice of America etc., do for their respective countries!

We have joint chambers of commerce in several countries through which we could disseminate our positive sides. Businessmen meet their overseas counterparts on a regular basis. It would be highly appreciated if the government utilizes them. In fact, the businessmen are and have been the doers in the past years and, therefore, we should equip them to promote Bangladesh.

And finally, we must have a “will” to highlight our positive aspects in the international arena. And for doing that, we must come out of the old mentality of seeking assistance all the time. Let’s engage in real business with other countries.