Experts at a meeting discussed a number of policies and regulatory simplification requirements to meet the export diversification targets in the national plans and export road maps.
They said PSDPCC is the only strategic public sector platform for private sector-related policy review, coordination, identification of investment barriers and fostering public-private cooperation.
The observations came at the meeting of 14th Private Sector Development Policy Coordination Committee (PSDPCC), at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Monday under the chairmanship of Md Tofazzel Hossain Miah, Principal Secretary to the PMO.
Organized by Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) and the PMO, the meeting initially did stocktaking of the 13th PSDPCC meeting and mentioned the reforms proposed already and implemented.
BUILD CEO Ferdaus Ara Begum made the keynote presentation mentioning that out of 72 proposed reforms from the fifth to eleventh PSDPCC meetings, 37reforms were implemented.
BUILD CEO presented three policy papers entitled simplification of issuing and renewal process of trade license, simplification of duty-free import process of raw materials for partial exporters, and implementation of the work plan elaborated in relevant policies and export roadmaps to facilitate export diversification.
She informed the meeting that Local Government Division has already allowed to issue a trade license with a tenure of 5 years, however it is not fully implemented across the country, and she urged for awareness campaign so that all trade license issuers issue trade license for five years.
While addressing, Principal Secretary said that we will regularly review the overall investment scenario in the private sector and set out ways to improve and identify bottlenecks in private sector development with a view to removing bottlenecks and building cooperation between public and private sectors.
He also requested Ministry of Commerce to form a committee with the representatives of NBR, the Ministry of Finance, and the private sector to draft the Corporate Social Responsibilities Policy and come up within two months.
Tapan Kanti Ghosh, Senior Secretary of Ministry of Commerce informed that provision of corporate social responsibilities (CSR) will be well addressed in the upcoming Companies Act. A committee can be formed to investigate the issues of CSR and the business who are not registered under companies act, they can be regulated otherwise.
Secretary Ministry of Finance Fatima Yasmin informed that rooftop power producers are getting funding at a relative lower interest rates. In this respect President MCCI, Saiful Islam suggested to consider small entrepreneurs so that they get access to finance.
NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md. Rahmatul Muneem agreed that partial exporters need support and in the regulations it needs to be recognized.
He further pointed out that after the automation of the bonded warehouse system, policy provisions for the partial exporters will be facilitated. Moreover, the duty drawback facility will be automated to facilitate the exporters to claim it in more simplified ways.
BUILD Chairperson Nihad Kabir pointed out that the e-commerce industry does not require trade license if it is recognized by the DBID. Referring to the proposal of BUILD, she urged to consider DBID as a document to get loans from banks.
A B M Amin Ullah Nuri, Secretary, Road Transport & Highways Division, Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, Satyajit Karmakar, Secretary, Planning Division, Shaikh Yusuf Harun, Executive Chairman, BEZA, Nafiul Hasan, DG, PMO among others were present and spoke on the occasion.
