There is still a major lacuna in the institutional framework for engaging the private sector in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs), experts said.
The private sector has a major role to play in attaining the SDGs, they said.
The experts said the contribution of the private sector remained stagnant at 23 per cent for the past four years which is not intended in a resource-constraint country like Bangladesh where the tax-GDP ratio is the lowest.
On the other hand, the government is trying to cover up the shortfall of private investment by increasing public investment, they added.
The experts made the observation at a technical session on 'Economic Preparedness to Achieving SDGs' of a daylong international conference 2018 in the city on Sunday.
The Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB) organised the conference styled as 'Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and Way Forward'.
In the keynote presentation, Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), identified five generic challenges for SDGs.
They are integration, institutional mechanism to implement SDGs, financing, data and partnership issues.
He said the weakest area where alignment is poor is the institutions, governance and rights.
The seventh five-year plan has addressed the essence of SDGs but there are areas which are weaker in terms of integration, he added.
"SDG talks about integration, interlocking, comprehensive, system approach and all government approach. But that is not happening in Bangladesh as the ministries and departments and other stakeholders are doing the works on their own way," said the noted economist.
"It means policy integration will not be useful if there is no institutional coordination and coherence," he said.
Regarding the financing issue, he said that another $66 billion which is 23 per cent of GDP will be needed in terms of additional resources. But it is not all government money, he clarified.
About $7.0 billion will come from foreign direct investment, said Dr Debapriya.
He showed that public financing will be 34 per cent, private investment 42 per cent, public-private partnership 6.0 per cent, external resources and foreign aid 15 per cent and others 3.0 per cent.
"The government is trying to get as much money as they can from outside. But we see we are getting $2.0 billion per year which is not good enough for that," said Dr Debapriya.
"Even if we get the money, we cannot spend them as we don't have the capacity to absorb more than $2.5 billion per year," he added.
About partnership with the private sector, he said Bangladesh is yet to prepare the mechanism to engage private sector in achieving the SDGs.
At another session of the conference, the speakers said Bangladesh should concentrate more on getting support from various development partners in expertise and skill enhancement to achieve the SDGs.
They also said international agencies can also help the country build capacity and adopt technology in addition to their financial support to this end.
The session titled 'Development partners' role in achieving SDGs' was moderated by Mamun Rashid, Managing Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Bangladesh.
National Economic Advisor to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bangladesh Shamsur Rahman, chairman of Emerging Credit Rating Limited Dr Jamaluddin Ahmed, Deputy FAO Representative in Bangladesh David Doolan took part in the discussion.
In his speech, Mamun Rashid said the September 26 (Wednesday) will mark the third year of launching of SDGs by the United Nations (UN).
Though many discussions on SDGs are taking place across the globe, the country's people from various walks of life need to comprehend their respective responsibilities, he said.
He underscored the need for concerted efforts of both the government and the non-government organisations to achieve the goals.
He also said the country should focus on getting more support in enhancing expertise and skills from the developing partners.
In his speech, David Doolan said Bangladesh's economy has made a laudable progress in recent years, which should assess their relationship with developing partners in a new perspective.
Bangladesh now doesn't require support in many cases like foodstuffs supply from other countries like before, said the FAO officials.
Mentioning the need for financial support for achieving the SDGs, he said knowledge and ideas are also important for an inclusive growth, which are also essential for environment protection.
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