Monday 7 October 2002 @ ArRum,44-48 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5PS

A.M. Abdul Muhit is a Senior Consultant of the World Bank, UNDP, IFAD and US AID. His area of specialisation includes national development planning, macro-economic policy, environment and sustainable development and external debt policy and management.

In Bangladesh he is currently the Chairman of the environmental forum POROSH. Mr Muhit has held several prominent positions during his career including serving as Bangladesh's Minister for Finance & Planning, Chief Executive Officer of Delta BRAC Housing Finance Corporation and Executive Director for Bangladesh and India in the Asian Development Bank. Mr Muhith was also a Visiting Fellow at Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University.

He has had extensive field experience in Africa, Asia and Latin America. After graduating from Dhaka University, Oxford University and Harvard University Mr Muhit spent the 1960s serving in the Pakistan Planning Commission, Pakistan Cabinet Office and Foreign Service.

Mr Muhit has written several books including Bangladesh: Development of a Nation State (2000); American Response to the Bangladesh Liberation War (1996); Bangladesh in the Twenty-first Century: Towards an Industrial Society (1999)

Issues of Governance in Bangladesh (pub 2000)

"Nearly twenty years ago the author published a collection of eight essays entitled "Thoughts on Development Administration". This is a second installment of nine such essays in the context of changes over the period. It begins with an attempt at identifying the pressing issues of good governance in Bangladesh. Then it looks at the structure of government and disposal of public business as it evolved since the British Raj. It goes on to provide a vision of local government of the future with most governmental functions and powers devolved to sixty-seven districts. Consistent with such a scheme a similar vision of national government and administration of the future is also provided. In three chapters the author deals with what he considers three important subjects—planning and budgeting, land administration and land use planning and electoral system. Finally there are two chapters on the vision for the twenty-first century. One is a reproduction of the vision 2001 from the earlier book and the other is the new vision for 2040." (jacket)

Bangladesh in the Twenty-First Century : Towards an Industrial Society(pub 1999)

"This book presents an optimistic picture of the future of Bangladesh. The author forecasts that given the political will and economic effort Bangladesh can become an industrial society in an integrated world economy by the year 2040. He predicts that Bangladesh will have a stable population of 200 million endowed with computer literacy and a democratic culture. "The first part of the book traces the growth of industrial civilization, the sources of its growth and the unresolved problems. The second part prescribes the strategy for the transformation of Bangladesh into the desired level of industrialization. "With the hindsight of years of public service, a development practitioner and the benefit of sustained study of the development process, the author is able to come up with this optimistic forecast. There are threadbare discussions on basic education, agricultural diversification, rapid demographic transition, commercial energy use, investment acceleration, reorientation of public expenditure and intervention, trade liberalization, a viable poverty eradication strategy, linkage of environment protection and preservation of natural resources with all economic and social action, and most importantly good governance whose cornerstone is devolving powers and functions to districts." (jacket)

American Response to Bangladesh Liberation War (pub 1996)

"On the Silver jubilee of Bangladesh liberation war this is a documentary chronicle of the American response to the great crisis in South Asia. Arranged in four parts it begins with a narrative by the editor and his wife on how the Bengalis in the USA reacted to the war and how the US and other citizens in the USA, the media, the US Congress and the executive responded to the crisis. In the second part a selection of documents produced in the USA at the time on various facets and issues of the liberation war are reproduced. They cover seven topics, viz., why Bangladesh, Pakistani atrocities, economic situation in war-ravaged Bangladesh, spectre of famine and disease, threat of a subcontinental war, economic prospects of Bangladesh, and the US policy relating to the crisis. Part three is devoted to action in the US Congress on the crisis and it also contains 45 selected statements out of a total of 210 made by senators and representatives on the floor. These two parts clearly bring out the great impact in USA of the Bangladesh liberation war. They also provide materials for a judgment on the response of all branches of the US society and government to the liberation war. The final part contains contributions in the form of recollections and reflections from selected American and Bengali participants, intimately associated with the Bangladesh liberation war effort in the USA." (jacket)