The local businessmen urged the government to remove all the barriers in doing business to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country and attain higher growth.
They urged the government to provide gas, water and electricity connections, lower lending rates, ease tariff and tax system, removing double taxation, and provide land for setting up factories to make the RMG sector compliant through relocation.
They made the appeal in the first meeting of Business Advisory Committee, formed to recommend finance minister to expand and develop the country’s trade and commerce.
“I will talk to finance minister and form sector-based committees to identify problems and find out effective solutions,” Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said, in response.
He said the government would take all necessary steps to keep prices of essentials at a reasonable level during the holy month of Ramadan, he added.
Former BGMEA president Annisul Haque it is quite impossible to make the RMG sector compliant with relocation. The government should manage land for factory relocation, he added.
He said small factory owners do not have enough fund to relocate factories and that’s why the government should allocate fund to provide loan at lower rate.
He also urged the government to provide gas connection to those factories immediately, which already has built buildings and imported machinery, but cannot go for production due lack of power connection.
Aftabul Islam of American Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bangladesh urged the government to enact coal policy to remove the power crises as there are enough coals in the mine through which country’s demands can be met. The public private partnership exists only in the papers. It should be activated to expedite the investment, he added.
BGMEA President M Atiqul Islam urged the government to provide lands at Korea EPZ to the factory owners of Chittagong as they are doing business in shared buildings.
Mir Nasir Hossain, managing director of Mir Group, urged the government to include the country’s think tanks in research for the development of business and to strengthen the WTO cell of Commerce Ministry, Bangladesh Tariff Commission and Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute to ease the process of doing business.
“We have several times raised our problems, but were not addressed,” said Tapan Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Employers Federation, adding entrepreneurs are being harassed in the name of environmental issues and others.
Former FBCCI President Ak Azad urged the government to provide agriculture loan at lower rate, particularly for the jute sector, as the sector is struggling.
If all the facilities, including export development fund (EDF) provided to the apparel sector, is provided to the other sector, it will help diversify products and increase exports, said Saiful Islam, chairman of Western Marine Shipyard.
Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) President Abdus Salam Murshedy demanded unified exchange rate for the exporters and to keep allocation in the national budget for construction of deep sea port as the exporters have to chase lead time.
Yousuf Abdullah Harun, former president of FBCCI, suggested the government to form sub-committee to identify problems and take initiative to resolve the problems with combined efforts in collaboration with all ministries.
“We have enough supply of essentials and the prices would remain stable during Ramadan,” said Mostofa Kamal, chairman of Meghna Group. He urged the consumers not to buy in bulk before Ramadan.
