Bangladesh’s efforts to revive private investment may depend heavily on restoring the participation of entrepreneurs and workers who have been pushed away from productive economic activity, economist Dr Birupaksha Pal has argued.
In an editorial published in Prothom Alo on 6 October 2026, titled ‘Inclusive Economy: Why Is Investment Not Increasing?’, Pal used the metaphor of a rainbow to discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion. He wrote that creating a ‘rainbow nation’ requires seven colours and cannot be achieved with only three.
The article raises the question of whether the three colours referred to by Pal were intended as a reference to Jamaat, BNP and NCP. His exact intention is not clear from the discussion. The broader point, however, is that an inclusive nation cannot realistically be built by bringing together only a limited number of political positions.
The idea of a ‘rainbow nation’ has a particular historical association with South Africa. The phrase gained prominence in 1994, when Archbishop Desmond Tutu used it to describe the country’s aspirations after the end of apartheid. Nelson Mandela subsequently embraced the concept as a vision of a country in which people from different racial, ethnic and social backgrounds could live together in a shared national framework.
South Africa’s circumstances made such a vision especially significant. The country had been deeply divided along racial lines under apartheid, and its transition to democracy required an effort to address those divisions while building a common sense of national identity. The concept of reconciliation therefore became closely linked to the idea of a new South Africa.
Mandela described the country as a society in which its people were deeply connected to its soil and could form a rainbow living at peace with itself and the wider world. For a country marked by profound racial and linguistic diversity, the vision was intended to turn differences into part of a shared national identity rather than allowing them to remain permanent sources of division.
The concept has also appeared in Bangladesh’s political discourse. On 10 December 2022, BNP announced its 27-point ‘state reform’ programme at a rally in Golapbagh. The second point included the stated objective of establishing an inclusive ‘rainbow nation’ based on Bangladeshi nationalism, in contrast to a politics of revenge and retaliation.
The programme was presented in the context of broader efforts to reform the state and was compared in the article with the 19-point programme associated with former president Ziaur Rahman. The earlier programme had also placed emphasis on national unity and cohesion.
The South African experience has another relevant element: the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Created during the country’s transition from apartheid, the commission sought to establish the truth about serious human rights abuses and provide a framework for reconciliation. Its approach became an internationally recognised example of addressing a deeply divided political past through a process centred on truth and reconciliation.
Discussion of similar ideas in Bangladesh has prompted comparisons with that experience. Comments made at a press conference on 6 October by the Prime Minister’s Information Adviser, Dr Zahedur Rahman, have also led some observers to draw parallels with the South African model, according to the article.
Yet the most immediate issue raised by Pal is economic rather than symbolic. He has suggested revising the three ‘Rs’ associated with the Prime Minister’s United Nations General Assembly address—Recovery, Restoration and Reconstruction—and replacing them with three new strategic priorities: Revision, Reform and Re-engagement.
Of these, he considers Re-engagement the most important.
The argument is that Bangladesh cannot expect a sustained rise in private investment unless productive people are brought back into the economy. This includes entrepreneurs and workers who were not involved in economic wrongdoing but who, according to the article, have become internally displaced or moved abroad because of political circumstances.
Their return to productive activity, regardless of political affiliation, could be significant for the wider investment environment. Investment decisions are influenced not only by access to finance but also by confidence, predictability and the expectation that businesses and workers can operate without unnecessary disruption.
The issue also has implications for employment and production. When entrepreneurs stop investing or skilled workers leave productive sectors, the economy loses both capital and human capacity. Re-engaging them would therefore mean more than encouraging new investment; it would involve restoring economic participation among people who already possess experience, skills and productive capacity.
Pal’s argument also points to the limits of relying exclusively on public investment. If the government seeks to increase investment through additional borrowing, the resulting debt creates greater financial obligations for the state. If it instead raises taxes to finance higher public spending, household disposable income could fall, reducing consumption.
Lower consumption could, in turn, weaken incentives for businesses to invest in additional production. If private investment remains subdued while public finances face growing pressure, economic growth could lose further momentum.
That makes the investment climate a central part of the broader discussion about economic recovery. A functioning economy needs entrepreneurs willing to commit capital, workers able to participate in production and consumers with sufficient purchasing power to sustain demand. Political uncertainty or exclusion affecting any of these groups can have economic consequences.
Bangladesh has often looked abroad when discussing possible models for its political or economic future. Public debate has at various times invoked Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Singapore as comparisons, whether as warnings or aspirations. The latest discussion turns to South Africa and its post-apartheid experience of reconciliation and national integration.
But becoming a ‘rainbow nation’ is not simply a matter of adopting another country’s terminology. The concept would have practical significance only if inclusion extended beyond political rhetoric into institutions, economic participation and opportunities for productive citizens.
That is where re-engagement becomes particularly relevant to the investment debate. If entrepreneurs and workers who remain capable of contributing to the economy cannot be brought back into productive activity, private investment is unlikely to recover through policy declarations alone.
The central challenge, therefore, is not merely to attract new investors. It is also to rebuild confidence among those who can already contribute to Bangladesh’s productive economy. Political inclusion, economic participation and investor confidence are closely connected, and restoring those links may be essential to giving private investment the momentum it currently lacks.
