President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) M Sabur Khan on Wednesday called upon the government to ensure uninterrupted supply of gas, power and energy to industries in the country’s greater economic interest.
“Many entrepreneurs invested a lot and imported machinery for their industries. But they couldn’t start their businesses for lack of gas connection. As a result fresh investment, industrialisation and employment creation are being hampered,” he said during a meeting with Industries Minister Dilip Barua at his Shilpa Bhaban office.
The DCCI president said both local and foreign investments will be discouraged if such a negative trend continues.
Sabur Khan also emphasised imposing more duty or tax on those imported finished goods which are produced in Bangladesh to save the local industries.
He, however, proposed not to impose more duty or tax on importing industrial raw materials.
Sabur Khan said financing is the main problem for the SME sector and if SME financing problem is solved, more SME entrepreneurs will come into the mainstream economy which will lead the country towards its goal.
He called upon the government to encourage more ‘Venture Capital’ companies and formulate policies.
On BSTI accreditation, Sabur Khan said, “Since BSTI’s accreditation is not accepted worldwide, we’ve to accredit our products by foreign accreditation companies which is time consuming and costly.”
He informed that India and Pakistan have already registered Bangladesh’s traditional Jamdani Sari, Nakshi Katha, Basmoti rice and Fazli Mango by their Geographical Indication Act. “On the other hand, Bangladesh has drafted the Geographical Indication Act (GI Act).”
Sabur Khan stressed finalisation and proper implementation of this GI Act and diversification and marketing of non-traditional items with the proper utilisation of technology.
Dilip Barua listened to the DCCI proposals and said that the present government is committed to expediting industrialisation.
Through industrialisation, he said, more employment opportunities will be created and economic development will be attained.
He expressed his opinion in favour of reducing rate of interest on lending into single-digit rate for the SME sector of Bangladesh.
The Ministry of Industries is working to reconsider the existing tariff and non-tariff barrier issues in order to facilitate local industries.
DCCI senior vice president Nessar Maksud Khan, vice president Absar Karim Chowdhury, directors Haider Ahmed Khan, Humayun Rashid, M Abu Hurairah, Shahidul Islam, Hossain A Sikder, Alhaj Abdus Salam and M Shoaib Choudhury were also present.
Source: UNB Connect