Thinking Aloud: Volume VIII, Issue 6: November 1, 2021

The November 2021 issue of Thinking Aloud focuses on “COVID-19 and Emerging Challenges”. The first-page article titled “Challenges of the agro-processing industry in Bangladesh” reiterates that there are considerable institutional challenges in the agro-processing sector in Bangladesh, which require a solution. The institutional challenges in the first stage of agro-processing in Bangladesh are relatively low. Although even without much government support, initiatives by people can achieve some success, however, institutional challenges become acute in later stages when the issues are related to marketing, integration with the value chain, further value addition, processing, and exporting. For these stages, the quality of institutional support matters. The second and third pages of this issue present two more articles in the context of Bangladesh. The article titled “Post COVID-19 recovery scenario and role of vaccination” attempts to discuss the cost of COVID-19 in 2020 and recovery scenarios in the post-COVID-19 era. The article observes that although the global growth will return to the positive zone in 2021, it could still be negative for the regions (i.e. emerging and developing economies) with below-median vaccination rates. The third article on “The poverty-reducing effect of migration in Bangladesh” reiterates the crucial implications that migration and resulting remittances can have for growth and development in the context Bangladesh. The article recommends twofold strategies for ensuring sustainable international remittance flow: encouraging the expatriates to adopt official channels through different forms of incentives, and exploring alternative destinations for sending migrants. The fourth page draws attention to the events in October 2021.