ICC Bangladesh strongly endorsed the finance ministry’s recent recommendation to avoid hard loans and discourage the import of luxury goods in order to reduce pressure on declining foreign exchange reserves.
The leading chamber also endorsed the recent austerity and regulatory measures taken by the government and Bangladesh Bank aimed at curbing non-essential imports, suspending the implementation of projects with high import components.
“We believe this will send a positive signal to the market and the economy as well as curbing inflation,” ICCB President Mahbubur Rahman told the 27th annual council held in Dhaka on Saturday.
ICCB also supports the demand of the businesses not to increase the power and gas rates, fuel prices as well reduce the corporate rate taxes during the upcoming budget as these will be helpful in containing the inflation, the ICCB president said.
While presenting the ICCB’s report, he said that over the last two years, the pandemic has played a major role in shaping the global economy. Many sectors have found themselves in difficulty and are still struggling and the countries dependent on those sectors are now quietly trying to get back up again.
The global economy is poised to be sent on yet another unpredictable course by Russia-Ukraine war. The Executive Board Report observed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine poses the most severe risk to developing Asia’s economic outlook, the report said.
The war is already affecting economies in the region through sharp increases in prices for commodities such as oil and has heightened instability in global financial markets, it said.
The Covid-19 continues to impact many parts of developing Asia, with some economies experiencing new surges in cases, he said.
Bangladesh’s journey of 50 years since its independence in 1971 has been tremendous and to many it is a ‘land of impossible attainment’, he added.
The dominant narrative of Bangladesh has been of an economic miracle and the country’s impressive score card is built on her success in terms of attaining a consistent high pace of economic growth and an impressive performance with regard to various development indicators, including those relating to the millennium development goals (MDGs), the ICCB president said.
According to World Economic Forum since its founding in 1971, Bangladesh has emerged from overwhelming poverty to be proclaimed by the World Bank in 2020 as ‘a model for poverty reduction’, Rahman said.
Bangladesh, like other countries, faces the daunting challenge of fully recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, which has constrained economic activities and reversed some of the gains achieved in the last decade, he said.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said that the tea production in Bangladesh was 60 million kg in 2009, which increased to 97.51 million kg in 2021, but the product was not exported much, so the government has decided to take steps to increase its export.
“There is a huge global demand for our tea, but it is not exported due to an increase in local demand and lack of export incentives. So, we have taken steps to export it after meeting the country’s demand,” he told a program organized in the city marking the National Tea Day on Saturday.
Tipu said, “We have started producing tea in the country’s northern region, where 14.55 million kg of tea was produced in 2021. The government will assist traders in all areas including innovating new varieties of tea, increasing production, auctioning, and marketing”.
This will increase the country’s tea production and enable us to export it after meeting the local demand, he added.
Minister for Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment Imran Ahmad, who was the special guest at the programme, said, “Tea is one of our most important cash crops and once tea was the second most exported product.”
National Tea Day is being celebrated for the second time in the country this year.
Md Jasim Uddin, president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Omar Hannan, president of Tea Traders Association of Bangladesh, and M Shah Alam, president of Bangladeshiyo Cha Sangsad, addressed the function presided over by Tapan Kanti Ghosh, senior secretary of the ministry.
The United States has briefed Bangladesh on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and Bangladesh welcomed additional information on the supply chain resilience and decarbonization pillars of the IPEF.
Bangladesh also sought U.S. technical assistance to sustainably explore its ocean resources and further develop its blue economy in pursuit of environmental protection and economic prosperity.
The issues came up for discussion at the second Bangladesh-US high-level economic consultation held in Washington, DC on Thursday.
Adviser for Private Industry and Investment to the Prime Minister Salman F. Rahman and US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jose W. Fernandez co-chaired the discussion.
US President Joe Biden launched the IPEF with a dozen initial partners: Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Together, they represent 40% of world GDP.
Earlier on Wednesday, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas said there will be opportunities for other countries to join in the recently launched IPEF.
There have been consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March regarding the IPEF and the ambassador hoped that Bangladesh will follow it closely.
Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday said upcoming national budget for 2022-23 will focus on economic recovery from uncertainties due to Covid-19 impact and Russia-Ukraine war.
“We’ll try to bring dynamism in the economy,” he told reporters while briefing about the outcomes of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase (CCGP).
He said that after the Covid-19 pandemic when the economy was trying to recover from the shock, the Russia-Ukraine war started which created huge vulnerabilities and uncertainties globally.
The National Budget for FY2022-23 is slated to be placed in Parliament on June 9.
Kamal said that after the Covid-19 pandemic when the economy was trying to recover from the shock, the Russia-Ukraine war started which created huge vulnerabilities and uncertainties globally.
“Every country in the world has to face the challenges of the vulnerabilities and they are under pressure”, he said adding that these uncertainties and vulnerabilities will create opportunities as well.
He, however, refused to disclose the main thrusts of the national budget. “Just wait...You will see when the budget is placed in Parliament”.
He hinted that strengthening the social safety-net programme will get a special focus in the upcoming budget.