Bid to revive confidence among business people

FE Team | Published: September 24, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Refayet Ullah Mirdha
The commerce ministry in association with the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) is going to organise a meeting in Chittagong September 25 next in a bid to revive the confidence among the business community.
This will be the second meeting of its kind. The first confidence-building meeting was held recently in Dhaka where Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed and Chief of the Army Staff General Moeen U. Ahmed addressed the members of the business community and called upon them to continue their respective businesses with confidence.
Commerce secretary Firoz Ahmed is scheduled to attend the meeting in Chittagong as the chief guest while Chittagong divisional commissioner Hossain Jamil will preside over it.
A commerce ministry source said such confidence-building gathering of businessmen might be held in other divisional cities including Rajshahi and Khulna.
A senior official of the ministry concerned told the FE that the government had taken the issue of spiralling prices seriously and was making all out efforts to contain the price-hike of essential commodities.
He said the meeting will try to help remove the fear of arrests and harassment of genuine business people in Chittagong.
When asked, president of the CCCI, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury said such a gathering of the chamber bodies and the government high-ups will help restore the confidence among the business people in Chittagong.
He said businessmen associated with different chambers and trade bodies will attend the meeting to receive guidelines from the government for operating their enterprises smoothly.
"Recently, the overall business activities in Chittagong have slowed down due to erosion of confidence among businessmen. But, it is also true that the 'black economy' is being restricted due to the government's recent drive against corruption," he said.