The country’s businesses need to work closely with the interim government, workers, and law enforcement agencies to address the ongoing unrest in the industrial sector, according to industry experts.
They noted that the economy remains in a contractionary phase, and if the industrial unrest isn’t resolved quickly, it could delay economic recovery.
These remarks were made during a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on the launch of the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for August, organized by the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and Policy Exchange Bangladesh (PEB), with support from the FCDO, in the capital on Sunday.
MCCI CEO and Secretary Farooq Ahmed highlighted that labor unrest has persisted for about three weeks in various industries across the country.
“Factories have faced incidents of vandalism and arson, disrupting production and marketing activities. However, the situation began to stabilize on Sunday,” he said.
Ahmed also mentioned that due to the recent unrest, businesses have suffered estimated losses of around Tk5,000 crore.
“Workers started protesting in various industrial areas shortly after the new interim government assumed office. Hundreds of factories have been attacked nationwide, with over 200 being forced to close,” he added.
He clarified that this financial loss estimate is not based on a formal survey but rather on discussions with top business leaders, suggesting that the actual losses could be even higher.
Ahmed expressed concern over the involvement of outsiders in the vandalism and called on the government to ensure factory safety.
“Hopefully, the government will take stricter measures soon to restore normalcy,” he added.
He also said that employers will also take measures to implement the logical demands of the workers otherwise, there will be more unrest in the industry which may slow down the economy.
At the event, MCCI disclosed PMI for August that showed that the country’s economic situation has slightly improved in August after a record contraction in July. The country's PMI index increased by 6.6% to 43.5 points in August, which was 36.9 points in July and 63.9 points in June.
The supply situation was severely disrupted due to prolonged mass uprising and violence during July-August and the agriculture, manufacturing, construction and services – all these four sectors have degraded. The interim government led by Professor Yunus took responsibility on August 8.
MCCI said the PMI index rose slightly in August compared to July but at the end of August, labour protests broke out and several districts of the country witnessed severe floods.
A survey-based indicator of the business conditions of any country is the PMI index which is published in more than 80 countries of the world.
This index is usually published every month based on the opinion of executives at the policy-making level of the company and through this, various issues including market reality and economic expansion or contraction come to the light which helps the investment.
The PMI index is published based on the opinions of executives of more than 500 private companies in these four sectors—agriculture, construction, manufacturing and services.
The PMI index is measured on a scale of zero to 100 and a score above 50 compared to the previous month indicates an expansion of the economy and a score below 50 indicates a contraction.
If the score is 50, it means that there was no change in the respective sector in that month.
At the event, MCCI Director Syed Tarek Mohammad Ali and Policy Exchange Senior Manager Hasnat Alam were also present.
