Experts for second recovery package

Bangladesh should introduce a second recovery package and ensure delivery to target beneficiaries, because it could take another two years for them to get rid of the debt burden – accumulated due to economic impacts posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Addressing an event on Sunday titled, “Bangladesh Emerging from the Pandemic: Coping Experiences and Policy Choices,” economists pointed out that though the Covid-19 pandemic began as a health crisis, it caused lasting implications in all sectors of the economy.

At the event, jointly organised Citizen’s Platform for SDGs and Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Senior Lecturer of Economics Department at the East West University Estiaque Bari said, “The instances of multiple borrowings are likely to increase in the next two years.

“For this, the government should provide soft loans to marginalised households through local government bodies to speed up the recovery process.”

In another presentation titled “Covid-19, Bangladesh-Micro Economic Impact and Policy Choice,” Senior Research Fellow at CPD Towfiqul Islam Khan said, “The government should ease conflicting policies and bring a new stimulus package to help the recovery of small enterprises.”

Planning Minister MA Mannan said, “Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh fared better than other countries such as India and china in terms of economic growth, and our exports are already witnessing a rebound. The government is also working to support the SME sector.”

Speaking at the event, UNDP Bangladesh’s Resident Representative Sudipto Mukherjee appreciated the government’s remedial measures in tackling the Covid-19 fallout.

“The economic resilience of Bangladesh has surprised many developed countries, and even during the pandemic, the country achieved a good growth of GDP,” he added.

Centre for Policy Dialogue’s (CPD) Executive Director Fahmida Khatun said, “The previous incentive package mostly reached the larger industries, and the SMEs did not get enough. There is a need for extending financial support to SME sectors so that they can recover.

“Many such businesses had shut down amid the pandemic, but they want to return. The SME sector has big employment opportunities. If the government decides to continue the incentives, many small and medium entrepreneurs will take out loans to resume their businesses.”

Presenting a keynote, Convenor of the Citizen’s platform for SDGs and distinguished fellow of CPD Debapriya Bhattacharya said, “The marginalised communities were disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 crisis.

“In terms of income, savings and debt, the economic distress was more severe and prolonged compared to health and other fallouts.”

He pointed out that the previous stimulus packages had four shortcomings – insufficient ratio compared to the GDP, lack of adequate cash transfers and food support measures, low coverage of eligible beneficiaries, and deficit in delivery.