CA calls for united efforts to take nation to height of success

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Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed Sunday called upon all including the members of the country's business community to be united to build its future together so that the next generation of Bangladesh can achieve its full potential and take the nation to further heights of success, reports BSS.
From a developing country, the Chief Adviser said, Bangladesh can be a developed one by the year 2050 and added: "It can be done, it must be done and it will only be done if we pledge ourselves to working together."
Dr Fakhruddin said this while addressing a dialogue on "Public- private partnership for economic development: Bangladesh perspective."
Bangladesh Better Business Forum (BBBF) and Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) jointly organised the dialogue at Radisson Hotel in the city. The Chief Adviser is the Chairperson of the BBBF.
Finance and Planning Adviser and Executive Chairperson of BBBF, Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam, Chief of Army Staff and BBBF member General Moeen U Ahmed, BBBF members Mahbubur Rahman and Laila Kabir also spoke on the occasion while FBCCI President Annisul Huq moderated it.
A power-point presentation was made at the dialogue on the progress of the one-year activities of the BBBF and the Regulatory Reforms Commission (RRC).
The Chief Adviser, the Finance Adviser and the Army Chief also responded to various questions raised by the businessmen.
Advisers, Special Assistants to the Chief Adviser, high civil and military officials, diplomats and business body leaders attended the dialogue.
"It gives me great pleasure to attend the celebration marking the first anniversary of BBBF and RRC" Dr Fakhruddin said.
It is time now for both individually and collectively as a nation to take more responsibility for a better future which will be free from poverty and hunger, he added.
The Chief Adviser said the BBBF has been formed as part of the efforts to ensure better cooperation between the private and the public sectors for the common interest of the entire nation.
He said a sustainable better investment climate can only exist in the country, alongside a climate of better governance.
Finance Adviser Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam said the country needs visionary businessmen for building a prosperous nation. Short-term profit maximisation should not be their only motive, he added.
Army Chief Gen Moeen U Ahmed said successful implementation of reform steps will help bring about an expected dynamism in national economic development.
The drive against corruption has already brought back the image of the country, he noted.
The Army Chief suggested reviewing the price of the petroleum and petro-products, considering the recent decrease of its price in the international market.
Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed said: "We as a nation have too often been divided, sometimes to the point of a standstill. Too often our national interest has been sacrificed to the limited interest of a few."
"If we are to fully realise our national potential, we must move beyond such divisions and unite together in common purpose", he added.
The Chief Adviser said a better investment climate will make room for more and better investment that in turn lead to greater employment, better jobs and better wages.
This itself creates a virtuous cycle, for citizens with better wages and jobs then become part of a market that can sustain more and deeper investment and the cycle can thereby perpetuate itself, he added.
The BBBF has made great strides over the past year, Dr Fakhruddin said and added there are now five groups working to address the five areas that affect all sectors and investment activities.
"This approach has made it possible for new and large sectors in the economy to open up in future. We must remember that this partnership is new, so we are all learning and improving as we journey together," he added.
The private sector can directly participate in improving skills and education programmes which in turn will create a more productive workforce, he added.
Pointing to government's initiative to roll out broadband across the country, Dr Fakhruddin said it can provide better communications at lower costs benefiting business operation.
We also want to see better and less onerous regulation for businessmen and for citizens, he said and added the RRC and the BBBF can help achieve this goal.
UNB adds: At the dialogue, the Chief Adviser urged the business community to solve the recent labour unrest in the readymade garments (RMG) sector on their own initiative while taking a move to lower costs and easier access to finance from the private banks, having a major stake in the country's overall banking system.
"The government is not the answer to all problems in the market, but it can facilitate finding out solutions to the problems," he said.
"It is ultimately the responsibility of the business community to take the lead and solve the problem. That is the best and only way forward for us," said the Chief Adviser, assuring government's role of facilitation with as little intrusiveness as possible.
The Chief Adviser said the business should be supported by a government that facilitated more and impeded less without imparting adversely the ability of business activities to quickly meet the market demands. "This is a commitment that must be made by any government that is truly for the people."
Replying to a volley of questions from the audience mainly from the businesses, he said the government would continue to give emphasis on law and order situation and help maintain it.
He, however, called upon the RMG entrepreneurs to consider labour as a production input like their capital and solve the related problem themselves.
Replying to another question on energy crisis that is the prime concern of the members of the business community, Dr Fakhruddin said the national coal policy is being discussed in the Council of Advisers and the council has sent for further review.
"We'll be able to make a coal policy," said the Chief Adviser, adding: "It's a resource. We should use the resource for the benefit of the people and the country."
In response to another question, Dr Fakhruddin expected that the progress of the BBBF activities would be faster next year than the first year when the body put forward 249 recommendations to better business climate.
The government so far implemented 52 recommendations while 61 were under implementation and 128 others under review, the meeting was told.
The Chief Adviser also expected that the BBBF would continue even under the next political governments, as the members of business community wanted it as a very good interface between the government and the businesses.
Amid demand from a woman business leader, Nasrin Awal Mintoo, the BBBF chairman instructed the BBBF secretariat to ensure more women representation in the body.
In his speech, Dr Fakhruddin said: "We must focus not simply on better returns for investors in the short run, but on better returns for all stakeholders involved". This, he added, will lead to long-term "superior" returns on investments.
Taking part in the discussion, the finance adviser called upon the private entrepreneurs to use the BBBF in reducing the lending rates on bank loans so they could help their counterparts boosting production.
He urged the private sector not to be dependent on the public sector for their survival and advised them to be competitive in the international market both for export and import trade.
He also requested the BBBF to go for a reform of credit system, which would help remove the historical tradition or malpractice of loan default and thus help reduce the interest rates on loans.
In his speech, Gen Moeen U Ahmed pointed out that endemic corruption in certain sectors was damaging the image of the country, hindering the flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country.
If we can remove corruption, we can have a double-digit economic growth, he said, adding that the country had recorded a significant economic growth in the last fiscal year despite having political hiccups, anti-corruption drive and natural disasters.
International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh (ICC-B) president Mahbubur Rahman said the progresses in the achievements of the BBBF have lured a number neighbouring countries including Nepal to adopt it.
The ICC-B president also sounded optimistic about the country's recent economic performance saying the country could attain significant export growth despite the global recessions.
He also urged the government to immediately adopt the national coal policy and quicken coal extraction to ensure the country's future energy security.
The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) president Annisul Huq pointed out the necessity to augment power generation, modernise ports and highways and set up economic zones to augment national growth.
He also hoped that a new political culture with tolerance would emerge after the next general elections.
bdnews24.com adds: Dhaka gridlock, delayed highway deals, power crisis, garment unrest and potato surplus were the key issues that the leaders of the business community raised while top government and business leaders sought to highlight the importance of public-private partnership in policy planning and regulatory reforms.
Both the Regulatory Reforms Commission (RRC) and Bangladesh Better Business Forum (BBBF) were launched last year with civil servants and public sector representatives joining hands to create a better business climate.
Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed, who heads the 41-strong BBBF, took some pride in the progress achieved by the forum since its launch in November last year.
Mentioning progress about implementation and approval of several recommendations by the BBBF and RRC so far, the Chief Adviser said: " "This is one indication of our steadfast and sincere commitment to transform this partnership from an idea into reality."
Many businessmen were far from impressed, however.
Abdur Rouf Chowdhury said he wanted better public-private collaboration in budget formulation since "we contribute 90 per cent".
The president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Fazlul Huq referred to the power and gas crises. "Are we going to be able to set up new industries in the next three to four months?"
The government's potato campaign came in for some stick.
Mohammad Jashim of Cold Storage Owners' Association said: "Four lakh (0.4 million) tonnes of potato will have to be dumped. Would you please consider including potato in your relief or Venerable Group Feeding (VGF) programme?"
Four potato processing companies - each with an investment component of Tk 1.0 billion (100 crore) - were set up but failed to go into operation because of lack of support from banks, Jashim said.
Aftabul Islam, a former DCCI president, spoke passionately about the traffic congestion in Dhaka. "A baby was born in a car yesterday because a two-hour gridlock."
Islam and others complained of government failure to move quicker with projects such as the second Dhaka-Chittagong Highway.
ASM Mainuddin Monem, of Abdul Monem Ltd, pointed to delays in decision making. "We do big infrastructure projects. We want to be partners in progress. But decisions have to come faster."
Shakil Ahmed tried to draw the of the Chief Adviser (CA) attention to the unrest in the garment industry.
Fakhruddin and BBBF members, however, listed the achievements so far, highlighting specialised SME banking services and the National Skills Development Council (NSDC) among many others.
The NSDC was targeted to create 15,000 IT professionals in five years, said Samir Asaf, a BBBF member who sits on the forum working group on skills development.
The dialogue ended with a question-answer session moderated by the FBBCI president, Annisul Huq.
Huq, an ex-officio BBBF member, was the first to speak at the "dialogue" reading out a text in English.
Finance Adviser Mirza Aziz, BBBF's executive chair, was not at all impressed when some businessmen demanded subsidies and government support to stay competitive.
"Anyone who exports anything wants government subsidy. That's not how you create competitiveness (in international market)," the finance adviser said.
He alleged that the private banks were colluding with each other to keep interest rates high.
But the government's role as the facilitator was acknowledged by the head of the interim government.