Dhaka, Aug. 22 -- Policy discussions on the state and nature of the economy in Bangladesh are dominated largely by experts who have studied in the West where only the formal sector exists. Thus the informal sector is neither studied nor perhaps well understood either by their experts or ours.

Stereotyping the informal sector as "backward"

The informal exists as the stereotype of the bygone era where economic systems were not developed and market rules and regulations were not in place. And the role of the State as a tax collector and distributor and regulator of goods and services to society was not understood.

Most importantly, it was about not understanding the world which the West had conquered but managed poorly. Informality was th...