Commerce minister Tipu Munshi on Sunday said that the country’s economic growth would be affected because of the disruption in imports from coronavirus-struck China. ‘We import lots of things form China , including raw materials for the readymade garment sector,’ he said while talking to reporters after the Corporate Connect 2020 Conference and Business Fair was inaugurated at a city hotel. Bangladesh brought from China products worth $13.63 billion, or 26.1 per cent of the total $52.1 billion imports, in 2018–19 ending in June last.
The number of deaths from the current coronavirus outbreak in China crossed 800 on Sunday and companies in that country hinted at the likely extension of the New Year holiday by the Chinese government. Tipu Munshi said that the import disruption was obvious. He, however, said that his ministry was very alert in this regard.
He further said that they would receive today an assessment report on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the national economy from the country’s apex chamber body, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries. He ruled out any hike in the price of onion because of the disruption in onion import from China as the country only imported 10 per cent of its annual need for onion from that country.
Earlier, speaking on the conference topic, Tipu Munshi said that the progress of the country’s women entrepreneurs was not satisfactory.
Without higher participation of the women entrepreneurs in real sectors the country’s double-digit growth target would not be of achieved, he said.
The World Bank Group and the ministry of commerce in collaboration with WEConnect International organised the conference and the business fair with support from the Women’s Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative or the We-Fi. The World Bank and WEConnect International have launched a project that will help 1,200 women-owned businesses to connect to potential large local and multinational corporate buyers.
The project is supported by the We-Fi. Describing the event as a platform for the government, the private sector, and institutional partners to support women entrepreneurs, Tipu Minshi hoped that it would encourage more companies to buy from women-owned businesses.
The conference was addressed, among others, by Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Nihad Kabir, International Finance Corporation country manager for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal Wendy Werner and WBG senior director Caren Grown. In Bangladesh, Wendy Werner said, only 5 per cent of the formal micro, small and medium-sized companies are owned by women.
‘As an investor in emerging markets, the IFC strongly believes that to enable companies and economies to grow, we must reduce the gaps between women and men in the private sector,’ she said. Caren Grown said that over the next three years the project would help create a database of Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs in order to increase their participation in corporate value chains.
The more that can be done to connect women-owned businesses to corporate buyers, the greater will be the benefit to both women entrepreneurs and to Bangladesh, she said.
