FBCCI for adjusting fuel prices with int’l market

Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries President Md Jashim Uddin on Thursday called upon the government to adjust prices of fuel with the international market as it declined there.

The chief of the apex trade body made the call at a press conference at FBCCI Auditorium in the city on the progress of bilateral trade expansion during the visit of an FBCCI delegation to the UK and France, as the prime minister’s entourage.

“The government didn’t do a good job by increasing fuel prices on the plea of price hike in the international market. Now the government should lower the fuel prices as the price has come down in the global market,” Jashim added.

Citing a “bad culture” practised in Bangladesh, Jashim said once the price of a product increases, it does not reduce. So, the government could further think before increasing the fuel price, he added.

Explaining on their tour of the UK and France, the FBCCI president said they signed six memorandums of understanding with the apex trade bodies of the UK and France to expand trade and increase investment.

“Our business delegation visited the UK and France from October 31 to November 13 this year as the entourage of the prime minister and took part in a good number of business events to expand economic relations,” he said.

Jashim informed that Bangladesh exported goods worth $3,453.87 million to the UK in the 2019-20 fiscal year while imported goods worth $411.06 million. On the other hand, Bangladesh exported goods worth $1703.58 million to France and imported goods worth $208.5 million from the country.

He said Bangladesh needs to go mainstream markets with diversified and quality products to increase the exports volume.

“We have to increase local and foreign investment to tackle the challenges of LDC graduation. We have a good number of potential products including agricultural and agro-processing products, light engineering, leather, Jute and IT etc. We should do market studies for all ‘Made in Bangladesh’ products,” he added.

Jashim underscored the need for developing skills to improve negotiation capacity for branding Bangladeshi products to achieve the developed country status by 2041.

Replying to a question, the FBCCI president hoped they will continue to enjoy the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) facilities up to 2031 in the UK market.