Long term growth target of achieving a trillion dollar Smart economy requires concerted efforts to reduce cost of doing business, ease of doing business, regulatory efficiency, energy security and ensuring access to finance for the private sector, experts said at a seminar on Sunday.
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) organised seminar titled “Bi-annual economic state and future outlook of Bangladesh economy: private sector perspective” organized by DCCI held on 18 February, 2024.
Dr. Mashiur Rahman, Economic Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister attended the seminar as the Chief Guest while DCCI President Ashraf Ahmed presented the keynote paper in the seminar.
While addressing, Dr. Mashiur said that our economy has experienced fundamental changes during the last decade. During this period private sector has also flourished remarkably.
He also said policies should be formed considering the problems and prospects of private sector. Consistent policies will expedite private sector investment as well as foster FDI, he added.
He also stressed on export diversification and value addition to export products. The Adviser termed pharmaceutical and light engineering sectors as most potential sectors for Bangladesh. He later said that we have to functionalize the API Park as soon as possible.
In the keynote DCCI President highlighted that we need to put emphasis on product as well as market diversification. He also termed that private sector investment is targeted in FY2024 at 27.4% of GDP while it was 21.8% in FY2023.
Required policies considering the LDC graduation will expedite the private sector investment, he added.
To facilitate private sector more he requested lower corporate tax, complete automation of taxation system, increasing tax net, reform of SD and Vat act. As NPL has an impact on increasing some intermediary costs for the private sector, that is why, he suggested to reduce NPL.
Chief Economist of Bangladesh Bank Dr. Md. Habibur Rahman said that due to global geo-political instability, price of essentials have increased and Central Bank has already taken necessary measures to tackle the situation.
He informed that Bangladesh Bank will introduce Crawling Peg system to keep exchange rate under control. Central Bank has underscored a roadmap to bring NPL in the industrial sector down to 8% within next 2 years.
Dr. Ashikur Rahman, Senior Economist, PRI said macroeconomic instability is not good for private sector. NPL always have a negative impact on businesses, so it is time to take serious decision against NPL, he said.
He also said that our tax-GDP ratio is not up to the expected level while it is hovering around 10%.
