Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) said, people learnt from the COVID 19 how to consume the negative impact of such disaster. They are resilient to cope with the crisis. Before the COVID, in March the economy was shown negative trend ridding on many problems including narrow down of exports and imports figures.
As the chief guest he was speaking at a Virtual Members’ Conference on “Impact of COVID 19 on Business - The Bangladesh Perspective” organized by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) on Saturday. ICAB President Muhammad Farooq delivered address of welcome while Dewan Nurul Islam, Past President, ICAB and Managing Director, Grant Thornton Consulting Bangladesh Ltd. presided over the Members’ Conference as the Session Chairman.
Dr. Md. Salim Uddin FCA, FCMA, CPFA(UK), CIFRS(UK), Member Council, ICAB, Professor of Department of Accounting, University of Chittagong and Chairman, Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (BHBFC) & Chairman, Executive Committee of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd presented the keynote paper.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman said, “During the pandemic millions of people came down below the poverty line. The income, consumption and assets inequality are rising. We are passing the days with a number of problems. If we do not address these problems, our future will be very problematic, he added. Citing the poor capacity of dealing any health crisis, he advised to rethink about the management of our health sector”.
He further said, “We do not have enough fiscal space to manage the economic crisis during and after the COVID 19. Mentioning the virtual circle of addressing any disaster like COVID, he said we should not depend on banks only for money circular, for which we have to end up with more number of NPL. Such negative trend of NPL will not bring any positive results for our economy”.
ICAB President Muhammad Farooq said, “The outbreak of COVID-19 forced Bangladeshi expatriates working in several countries of Middle East, Asia, Europe, Australia, and United States to return home. As a result, a significant disruption in the flow of remittance as well as unemployment problem have been created in the country”.
The new normal may come up with changed lifestyle, purchasing behavior and the way of doing business, said Farooq and added that has compel to rethink the solutions of problems laying foundation for many business ideas and shaping future of e-commerce industry.
The government alone cannot carry out the fight against COVID-19. It will require an unprecedented level of coordination between the public and private at the local and international level, he suggested.
