BBBF progress to be reviewed this week

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Naim-Ul-Karim
The chief of the country's caretaker administration will sit with members of the Bangladesh Better Business Forum (BBBF) this week to review the progress of the organization made since its inception almost a year ago.
Officials said the 6th meet of the forum, formed to help foster economic growth through maintaining suitable business environment through public-private partnership, will emphasise implementation of the recommendations, made by its five working groups.
The groups were formed to work in the areas of 'Business Entry and Operation', 'Infrastructure', 'Macro-economic Policy', 'Business Finance', and 'Skill Development of Manpower', they added.
"The 6th meeting of the BBBF, scheduled to be held on November 25 with chief adviser (CA) Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair, will review the working groups' functioning also," a senior official said on Thursday.
The CA in the 5th meeting of the forum, held around two months back, called upon working groups for becoming more active and directed to implement the recommendations quickly.
The five working groups under the BBBF, designed to strengthen public-private interaction, have so far made over 250 recommendations. Of which, the forum endorsed 113. Of the approved recommendations, 52 have already been implemented while the rest are in different stages of implementation.
Among the recommendations already implemented are Reconstruction of National ICT Task Force, setting up of the National Skill Development Council (NSDC), increasing financing and extending facilities to small and medium enterprises, establishment of SME service center, expansion of tax holiday in industrialisation, rationalising import duty and reducing bandwidth and other charges on internet services.
The issues relating to the unimplemented recommendations, an official said, are now set to come across the table as top of the list of agendas.
He said the CA, also chairperson of the BBBF, during the fifth meeting instructed for regular monitoring to see the outcome of the already implemented and under-implementation recommendations of the BBBF.