A capital idea

To say that the entirety of the Bangladesh economy is heavily reliant on Dhaka would be an understatement.

The centralized nature of our economy has always put a lot of pressure on the capital, leading to, among other things, clutter, overcrowding, traffic congestions, pollution, and overall infrastructural inefficiency.

To that end, one solution to the problem could be to relocate the capital -- essentially the central government and its operations -- away from Dhaka.

While the issue of decentralizing Dhaka has been talked about for some time now, with many proposed ideas never seeing the light of day, moving the capital could be an idea worth entertaining by the authorities.

In the past, such a move has been successfully employed by countries such as Brazil, Kazakhstan, and, closer to us, Myanmar -- and is currently being proposed by both Thailand and Indonesia as a solution to their own heavily populated and overcrowded capitals.

What could be the most attractive feature about this proposition is the fact that, unlike the relocation of private industries and business districts, there is little in the way of conflict of interest in relocating the government.

Additionally, Dhaka no longer being the capital could be the first step in encouraging corporations and industries -- many of which choose Dhaka due to the close proximity to our national bureacracy -- to consider moving their operations as well.

For a country achieving developmental milestones, it must ensure that it develops holistically. Therefore, relieving the pressure on Dhaka by not having it as the capital of Bangladesh could be an idea worth considering to enable this.