Shortage of funds makes Foreign Trade Institute dysfunctional

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Doulot Akter Mala Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI) remained a project-based organisation since the inception and it could frame no integrated trade policy under public-private partnership (PPP) much to the dissatisfaction of the government and the private sector. Officials said the lack of proper initiatives of the government including lending it financial support and equipping it with adequate manpower made the BFTI almost dysfunctional in the last eight years. Formed in 2003 by the Ministry of Commerce in cooperation with major trade bodies, the BFTI is now running with only three officials-chief executive officer (CEO), research fellow and research associate. It got the CEO and the research officials for the first time in 2008 under the Bangladesh Trade Support Programme (BTSP), a project financed by the European Union (EU) and the government. The project ended in 2009. BFTI CEO Dr Mozibur Rahman said the BFTI turned out to be a project- based institute due to lack of funds to continue its activities. "After expiry of the BTSP project, the BFTI became dysfunctional. It regained pace again with the launch of a new project by the EU in September 2012," he said. In the last two years (2010-2012), the BFTI remained inoperative as the government did not provide any fund after expiry of the BTSP project. During this period, most of the BFTI officials left the organisation. Recently, the institute took an initiative to appoint some officials. "After expiry of a project, the institute usually remains dysfunctional due to fund shortages," Dr Rahman said. The institute urged the government to allocate Tk 1.0 billion in the form of endowment fund for strengthening it, he said. "Recurring expenditures could be met from the interest-earnings on Tk 1.0 billion in the coming years and the BFTI could be made capable of retaining its staff and carry out research, training and development activities without any hindrance," he added. Following a request of the BFTI, the commerce minister recently sent a proposal to the finance ministry seeking Tk 1.0 billion as an endowment fund to enable it to boost its trade-related research and training. "Though BFTI is the pioneering example of a PPP company, it could not take off as per expectations because of the lack of sufficient funds to carry out its activities," Commerce Minister GM Quader wrote in the letter. An institute cannot be developed to the desired level depending solely on a donor fund as it is not coming regularly, he said. The donor fund may only be used for furthering development of the institute and its expansion and for some other specific purposes, he added. In the letter, the commerce minister said, "In this competitive globalised world, if we want to increase our international trade to achieve a trade-GDP ratio of a least 70 to 80 per cent, we including our traders and producers need to move in the right direction, we must ensure our trade officials in both public and private sectors have adequate knowledge and skills." He referred to the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) that received strong financial support from the government for almost 40 years. He sought the assistance for the BFTI as the Bangladesh government also supports some other institutions like SME Foundation, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Planning Academy etc.