form the first Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh. The freedom fighters were ordered to surrender their weapons and it was planned to absorb them into a national militia. The Government of Bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy, and the state is secular and socialist. In foreign policy it is non-aligned. FOREIGN RELATIONS The Soviet Union recognised Bangladesh on 24th January 1972, the UK on 4th February and the USA on 4th April. In all (to date) about 80 states have recognised the new state. Sheikh Mujib visited India at the beginning of February and Mrs Gandhi visited Dacca 17th-19th March. A Treaty of Friendship was signed by the two countries. The Soviet Union was the second country to receive an official visit from Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and has promised £18,000,000 in aid. The British Secretary of State visited Bangladesh 23rd-24th June. British aid and interestfree loans in the last 12 months amount to £16,800,000. On 18th April 1972 Bangladesh joined the Commonwealth. Bangladesh is a member of WHO, the IMF, the IDA, UNDP, UNCTAD, the ILO and the World Bank. THE ECONOMY The economy of Bangladesh is overwhelmingly agricultural in character, with a very low average per capita income and a population growth rate of well over 3 per cent a year. Per capita income has been virtually static since 1947, while literacy rates and per capita provision of educational facilities may have declined. Much the most important subsistence crop is paddy. There has in recent years been a substantial and growing shortfall in rice supplies, which has been met by imports of about 1 million tons of wheat a year from West Pakistan; the deficit in 1972 may be 2 to 2 million tons. Bangladesh needs to pursue a family planning campaign and a programme of agricultural modernisation. New techniques of rice-growing have made a contribution only to the small winter (boro) crop and high humidity appears to make some of the new high-yielding rice strains unsuitable for the summer (aus) and autumn (aman) crops. With further research, and development of fertilizer supplies and water control, there would nevertheless appear to be considerable scope for increased yields. Owing to deforestation and erosion in India Bangladesh has in recent years suffered increasingly from flooding. It is also subject to damage caused by cyclones originating in the Bay of Bengal. Protection against the worst effects of cyclones requires the building and maintenance of some thousands of miles of coastal embankments. The main export crops are jute and tea. Conditions are ideal for jute and East Bengal has usually produced half the total world supply, even under tax and exchange arrangements which have not in recent years encouraged the export of raw jute. Some 74 million bales of raw jute have usually been produced, of which some 34 million bales have been retained for use by local mills. Production in 1971 was probably below normal and may be so again in 1972. The tea produced is variable in quality and the surplus over local requirements was until 1972 sold to West Pakistan. There is a potential exportable surplus of fish, for which the natural market is Calcutta, and of paper. Very substantial natural gas reserves have been found; distribution presents problems and gas-based industries may have to be sited in the gas fields, but one fertiliser plant has already been built. Electricity supply also suffers from problems of distribution, rather than generation. It is possible that further exploration may reveal oil supplies. There are considerable coal deposits, but at too great a depth to have been thought economically exploitable. Few other minerals have been found, most of the country being delta land built up by deep alluvial deposition. There are extensive forests on which paper and wood product industries have been based. Up to 1947 East Bengal formed a central component of the rail and water transport networks covering also West Bengal and north-eastern India. East Bengal and Sylhet were then part of the economic hinterland of Calcutta and, although the Pakistan Government built up the facilities at Chittagong, Chalna and Khulna, some of the former pattern of activity may reassert itself now that the restrictions imposed on trade with India have been lifted or modified. The ports of Chittagong and Chalna were during 1972, under an agreement with the Soviet Government, being cleared of wrecks and other obstructions created during the war in 1971. Severe damage was also caused to road, rail and river transport during the war and substantial international assistance was provided during 1972 to rebuild hundreds of bridges and to replace lost or damaged transport equipment. Before 1947 the Calcutta jute manufacturing industry was based on raw jute supplies from East Bengal. After 1947 jute cultivation was encouraged in West Bengal, while a modern jute manufacturing industry was developed in East Bengal, which up to 1971 steadily captured an increasing share of the export market from the Indian mills. Most of these new jute mills in East Bengal, and also other newly developed industries, were financed, managed and in some cases manned by non-Bengalis, including both West Pakistanis and Muslim immigrants from India. Many of these are now either in Pakistan, or, if still in Bangladesh, unable to resume work. Bengali skilled workers have also vanished, while some of the mills have been damaged. The Government has nationalised most organised industry, as well as local banking and insurance firms, and has set up state corporations to operate the following groups of existing manufactures: jute; cotton; sugar; steel; paper and board; forest products; fertilisers, chemicals and pharmaceuticals; engineering and shipbuilding; and food and allied products. A corporation to deal with minerals, oil and gas is also being created. It may be some time before most industries are running again at full efficiency, in view of damage to plant and the shortages of entrepreneurs, managers, skilled labour and supporting services, such as banking and marketing facilities. Inadequate infrastructure and a very low rate of savings have been an important reason for the slow rate of development since 1947. Throughout the 1960s, and increasingly in recent years, East Bengal had an overall deficit on visible trade, both with West Pakistan and with the outside world as a whole, although this was in part due to the distorting effect of export duties on raw jute and the workings of the bonus voucher system. Trade with West Pakistan, however, had a considerable element of complementarity and, unless it is revived, large readjustments of trade patterns will be necessary. A renewed, though smaller, flow of raw jute to the Calcutta mills will probably become normal, but the two industries will still be in direct competition unless the Governments of India and Bangladesh regulate the trade by agreement and this will not be easy to arrange. The jute industry has also to face the competition Ꭰ of synthetics. Pakistan has for the moment switched purchases of tea to Ceylon and elsewhere. New markets abroad will therefore have to be found for tea in more direct competition than hitherto with India, Ceylon and East Africa, although the addition of Bangalee supplies to the international market will be balanced by the addition of Pakistani offtake; it is possible that the better grades of Bangalee tea will fetch higher prices under these conditions. New sources of supply will have to be found for the cheap consumer goods, for some 1 million tons a year of wheat and for the industrial raw materials, especially cotton and crude oil, hitherto purchased from or through West Pakistan, while India should be a more economical source of coal supplies than, as hitherto, China. For the short-term Bangladesh has been faced with a serious problem of finding the liquid resources to get exports, imports and local commerce and industry moving again. The Government of India provided both commodities and some sterling at an early stage and a good deal of relief assistance was received from Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States and other countries, both directly and through the United Nations. Some loss of foreign exchange has occurred through smuggling of commodities across the border into India. This is likely to be a serious problem so long as prices in Bangladesh are substantially below those in neighbouring Indian territory and they may in consequence be expected to rise. The problem has been enhanced by the otherwise desirable devaluation of the Bangladesh rupee, now renamed the taka, to the level of the Indian rupee at 18.9677 to the pound sterling. There is also a danger that barter agreements entered into as a result of short-term pressures may prove disadvantageous in the long term. The trade agreement with India signed on 28th March 1972 provided for a three-tier system of barter, rupee and non-rupee exchanges which may prove difficult to control. The two countries have also agreed to set up a joint commission to survey the Ganges/Meghna/Brahmaputra river system with a view to cooperation in the use of water resources, flood control, power generation and trade and transport. The revival of transit services between West Bengal and north east India and between Nepal and the outside world should provide a useful source of income, as will remittances from Bangalees in Britain. Revenue has in the past been heavily dependent on trade and excise duties. The budget for 1972/73, presented on 30th June 1972, estimated revenue receipts at taka 2,916 million, of which the main items were taka 1,280 million from customs duties, taka 652 million from excise duties and taka 406 million from sales taxes, while it was proposed to finance development expenditure of taka 5,172 million principally from foreign aid estimated at taka 3,750 million, a revenue surplus of taka 732 million and floating debt of taka 410 million. All these estimates must inevitably be somewhat tentative. Customs and excise duties were to be adjusted to take account of devaluation and the abolition of bonus vouchers, income taxes were to be made more progressive, capital gains tax was to be increased and tax holidays were withdrawn. The largest allocation of expenditure was made to agriculture, followed by transport and communications, education and defence. GOVERNMENT PRESIDENT Mr Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury CABINET Prime Minister, Minister of Defence. Minister for Cabinet Affairs Minister for Industries: Syed Nazrul Islam Minister for Flood Control & Water Resources: Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed Minister of Education, Cultural Affairs and Sports: Professor Mohammed Yusuf Ali Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives: Minister of Public Works and Urban Development: Matiur Rahman Minister of Power, Natural Resources, Scientific and Technological DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATION BANGLADESH REPRESENTATIVES IN Britain: A. A. Golds, CMG, мVO; Canada: BANGLADESH REPRESENTATION IN * Non-resident representation. BARBADOS ARBADOS is the most easterly of the Caribbean islands and lies between latitudes 13° and 14° N. and longitudes 59° and 60° W. Its total area is 166 square miles. It is comparatively flat, rising in a series of tablelands marked by well-defined terraces to the highest point (1,104 feet) at Mount Hillaby. The north-east corner of the island, the Scotland area, is broken country, much eroded and rather barren. The formation of the rest of the island is coral limestone. There are no rivers, but deep gullies which fill with water during heavy rain have cut their way through the coral terraces in many places. Indigenous forest covers about 46 acres. The climate is more equable than the tropical latitude would suggest. Northeasterly trade winds blow steadily from December to June but during the remainder of the year, the wet season, the wind moves to the south-east and is less strong, resulting in humid, hotter conditions. The average temperature is 26.5°C (79.8°F). The rainfall is very varied: in the high central district the yearly average is 75 inches while in some of the low-lying coastal areas the average is 50 inches. The population of Barbados at the census of 1960 was 232,820. The population of the parishes were: Bridgetown, the capital, and St Michael 94,209; Christ Church 33,425; St George 17,075; St Philip 17,255; St John 10,967; St James 13,611; St Thomas 10,026; St Joseph 8,582; St Andrew 7,813; St Peter 10,860; St Lucy 8,997. The main population divisions were Negro 207,156; White 10,083; Mixed 13,993; Others 1,588. The estimated population in 1970 was 238,000. The birth rate, based on 1969 figures, is 20.9 per 1,000 and the death rate 8.0 per 1,000. The main religious denominations are Anglican 133,772; Methodist 18,403; Roman Catholic 6,429; Others 74,216. Education (primary and secondary) is free in Government aided schools. Bridgetown is the only port of entry, but oil is pumped ashore at Spring Gardens and at an Esso installation on the West Coast. The main shipping companies visiting Barbados are Harrison Line, Geest Line, Royal Netherlands Steamship Company, Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, Saguenay Shipping Ltd, Booth Line, Lamport and Holt Line, Moore |