Business seeks policy support to bring about a miracle as MCCI celebrates its 110 years
Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday hoped to get out of the 6% economic growth cycle maintained by the country over the last several years.
“It seems we have done badly maintaining the growth rate within the boundary of 5.7% and 6.7% over the last several years. I am not very happy about it,” he said.
Muhith sees the coming months will be helpful to get out of the cycle.
He was speaking at the marking of 110 years of the country’s oldest trade body MCCI yesterday at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka.
A book on the MCCI along with the body’s new logo was unveiled at the function.
“We have decided in the period of crisis to maintain the domestic demand at good level and pace of domestic resource mobilisation. These are the two policies in the last six years we are maintaining, which are fairly successful,” the finance minister stated.
The minister appreciated the MCCI and other chambers bodies to formulate various government policies, including income tax law in 1983 and VAT law in 1991.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said the economy grew 6% annually with human development growing hand in hand.
He said poverty dropped nearly third coupled with improving life expectancy, per capita income, literacy rate and food intake.
The minister hoped the country’s annual export volume will be around $60bn by the fiscal year 2020-21.
“This year our RMG export stood at $24.5bn and next year we projected the export will be $27bn. This is just by the dint of hard work of business people. Bangladesh is a miracle,” he continued.
He remembered that in 1972-73 the export earning was only $300m and the export items were only 25 while the volume has crossed $30bn now.
He said when the country had 75m people, it faced shortage of foods, but now the population is 160m and the country is self sufficient in food.
“We have surplus of foods. I say surplus because very recently we have decided to export 50,000 tonnes of rice to Sri Lanka. This is the first time Bangladesh is going to export rice. That is the potential of Bangladesh today.”
Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi said Bangladesh has progressed a lot in the last five years, as power generation increased 75% and transportation sector is moving forward.
Many international analysts and organisations described Bangladesh as a land of tremendous potentials, he cited.
Referring to the mega projects, including Padma bridge, taken by the government, PM adviser said these are possible to be implemented as “the industrialists and traders are playing a great role in the development of Bangladesh.”
MCCI President Rokia Afzal Rahman said in the last 110 years MCCI passes through a very tumultuous period of history starting with partisan of Bengal and birth of Pakistan and then independent Bangladesh.
She said MCCI has created a history of its own.
“If the history of 110 years has been epochal, the changes that are yet to come will be nothing short of revolutionary. We believe it will reshape a society in ways that we cannot even imagine,” she said.
According to her, globalisation has already fundamentally altered the way to do business at a technological revolution.
Rokia Afzal said MCCI firmly believes Bangladesh surprised the world in the past with its resilience and it will do so with its creativity and functions.
But for that, “we must have stronger and more trusting harmonisation and mutually beneficial relation between the government and the private sector.”
She said much has been saying about Chinese success but what is often overlooked is that the centre of success is the symbolic nature of cooperation between government and the private sector.
“We cannot replicate the Chinese success but definitely bring about Bangladeshi miracle, if the government gives us that crucial policy support that Chinese and South Korea governments give to their private sector,” MCCI chief said.
She offered the government to sit to work out a detailed policy guideline that the government and business people can unleash to create a miracle.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
