Business community on Tuesday asked the government to improve the business climate for reducing business cost to compete with the global market as there would be no preferential trade facilities after Bangladesh’s elevation to a developing country.
Trade leaders and experts came up with the call in a virtual dialogue on Current Reforms in Ease of Doing Business in Bangladesh and Preparedness for the Future organised by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“After successful economic graduation by 2026, Bangladesh will lose most of the preferential trade facilities which may hurt our competitive export market. In this context, the ease of doing business is essential to reduce the cost of business as global trade is getting more competitive,” said DCCI president Rizwan Rahman.
It is the high time to address bottlenecks, reduce time, process and cost in all criteria of doing business and streamline the entire process towards lifting the indicators of the index, he said.
“To make cross-border trade paperless with automated customs clearance for low-cost trade process, we need to fasten the Corrective Action plan for implementing trade facilitation agreement, said Rizwan.
He also said that a time-bound reform and designing an improvement roadmap would be inevitable to take the economy into a new stature aligning with the vision of government in the changing geo-economic order.
In response to the call of the business people, investment development authority said that they were working to bring remarkable changes in the business environment.
“The ease of doing business is a broader area. We do not like to mainly focus on scoring rather we are trying to create a business-friendly environment,” said Md Sirazul Islam, executive chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority, addressing as chief guest.
Some of the reforms have already been done by the government under coordination of BIDA, he said and requested the private sector to go through the reforms and report based on the real facts. BIDA needs to be strengthened more, he added.
“If you have any observations on the reforms made, you can tell us. Company to company land transfer now can be done by seven days, he said.
There will be separate courts for dispute resolution under enforcing of contracts, he said adding that an alternative dispute resolution measure is also important.
The other discussants stressed on creating favorable business environment to help the entrepreneurs do business without any obstacle.
Creating a real effective business friendly environment is more important than improving in the ranking of ease of doing business index, said a discussant.
The discussants suggested coordinated collaboration among the concerned public sector entities as well as public-private consultation. They also said that businesses should be well aware of all government circulars or notifications related to trade and commerce.
Still there is a scope for improvement in institutional and regulatory reforms, they said.
BIDA should hear the concerns of foreign investors to get an idea of possible reforms needed, they added.
Chittagong Stock Exchange chairman Asif Ibrahim, DCCI director Md Rashedul Karim Munna, DCCI senior vice-president NKA Mobin and DCCI vice-president Monowar Hossain also joined the virtual discussion.
