Expressing that the country's stable economy would help attract more FDI, moreover few of the mega projects will be accomplished soon and that will help expedite FDI inflow", Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir on Saturday stressed enhancing soft and hard skills of manpower in facing the challenges of LDC graduation.
Addressing a webinar titled “Bi-annual Economic State and Future outlook of Bangladesh Economy: Private Sector Perspective”, the Governor also said that due to Covid our economy fell into a challenge but with the power of resilient private sector of Bangladesh the economy is performing relatively well in recent past.
Our GDP and total size of economy have been increased which is a good sign and reflects that we are on board, he said.
Regarding financial sector, he said that government has declared stimulus package at the right time and there is no liquidity shortages in banks right at this moment.
Governor mentioned that Bangladesh Bank is closely monitoring the inflationary pressure on the economy. In terms of export diversification, he also reiterated that our light engineering, jute, leather, ICT and pharmaceutical sectors are doing better beside the RMG sector.
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) organised the webinar on Saturday.
Md. Jashim Uddin, President, FBCCI, while addressing, said that prices of commodities in the international market increased. In that case cost of import and duty also increased. But the economy is yet to be recovered, he said.
He said due to disrupted global supply chain system the international market becomes little bit volatile. For controlling inflation he recommended to redesign duty structure for the time being.
He also urged upon sectoral skill development and innovation targeting the LDC graduation. Moreover, we need to be competitive on negotiation skills, he added.
DCCI President Rizwan Rahman presented the keynote paper.
Rizwan Rahman in his presentation outlined the bi-annual economic state of the country started from July 2021 up to December of the same year.
Rizwan Rahman said the country still could not come out of the shackle of Covid 19. Inflation rate rose to 6.05% in December in view of the rise in fuel cost in the international market.
He suggested to give loan facilities to the importers of daily essentials and to cut duty on commodities import to tackle the inflation. He also suggested to compensate the agro-businesses with lower transportation and fuel cost.
However, despite having notable global supply chain disruptions, Bangladesh’s goods export have increased by 28.41% in last six months which is a good sign, he said.
Dr. Zaidi Sattar, Chairman, PRI said Bangladesh is a highly integrated market. Bangladesh’s economy is growing and the size of GDP is quite big. He stressed on the development of domestic market.
He also stressed upon export of services, effective exchange rate and diversification of products.
Naser Ezaz Bijoy, President, FICCI said real estate sector is a large sector which has a positive multifarious implications to other related sectors. If we can securitize the portfolio issuing bonds then we will be able reduce the rate of defaults, he added.
Md. Saiful Islam, President, MCCI said Bangladesh is a success story in the South Asia due to having its economic strength.
"We are trying to recover the economy. Stimulus package announced by the government was the game changer, he said. Our export increased by 28% and if this trend continues then by the end of this year it will be hovering around $50 billion", he mentioned.