ICCB president blasts multilateral lenders

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FE Report
President of International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB) Mahbubur Rahman has expressed his concern over attempts to influence Bangladesh Bank by the international agencies, particularly the IMF, to rein in private-sector credit growth to reduce inflationary pressure.
Calling upon the Bangladesh Bank to play a proper role to protect national interest, he said: "We strongly recommend that the central bank will not take into consideration any IMF suggestions that may hurt our economy."
He was speaking at the inaugural session of a day-long workshop on "International Trade Payments : Management and Options" organised by the ICCB in co-operation with the United Commercial Bank Ltd at Bangladesh China Friendship Conference Centre on Wednesday.
Criticising the international lending agency, he said, according to the IMF, the growth of the country's RMG sector might slide to single digit although Bangladesh Bank thinks that the country's garment sector is unlikely to take a hit from the global financial meltdown.
Referring to World Bank projection that GDP of Bangladesh would be around 4.8 percent against Bangladesh Bank's estimate of likely GDP growth at 6.2 percent to 6.5 percent, the ICCB president said international financial institutions should be careful in making such projections in public without having prior consultations with the country's policy makers, business community and other stakeholders.
Urging the central bank governor to arrange interaction with the World Bank together with government policy makers, business leaders and others to have a threadbare discussions on the recent WB statement on the country's economy, Mr. Rahman said: "We must strongly oppose such kind of negative public statement without providing relevant facts and figures."
Bangladesh Bank governor Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed inaugurated the workshop. Chairman of ICCB Standing Committee on Banking Technique and Practices, Mr. Mamun Rashid and visiting European expert Vincent O'Brien also spoke at the opening session.
The governor in his inaugural address congratulated the participants who successfully completed the IFC "FIT" Initiative programme and hoped that the participants as well as the country would be benefited from this training.
He said that risk and complexity are two major issues in international trade and these could be reduced by creating awareness among the bankers through such programmes. This type of training programmes will be very helpful to the bankers in discharging their duties.
In response to the observation made by ICCB President regarding international agencies, he said Bangladesh Bank is very much cautious about their (international agencies) comments and is strictly monitoring the impact of their views on the economy.
Regarding exchange rate, the Bangladesh Bank governor said the exchange rate is not the only criteria for being uncompetitive. The other factors such as productivity, improving quality, are needed to be competitive, he added.
ICCB president said it is true that until now the global recession has not hit our export industries or threatened the wage earners' remittances, but there is no room for complacency.
He also emphasised the need for competitive exchange rates to keep the country's exports competitive and reduction of interest rate to create more economic activities.
The ICCB president welcomed several initiatives taken by the central bank to tackle any immediate impact of the global turmoil on the financial sector.
"To minimise valuation losses, Bangladesh Bank should immediately revise benchmark of its reserves, to protect the real value of the reserves," he added.
Mr. Mamun Rashid, Chairman of ICCB Standing Committee on Banking Technique and Practices said one of the major challenges, the country will be facing is the growing demand for open account transactions, which is still missing in the current import policy order.
He observed that in Bangladesh scenario, open account transactions are still restricted to Type-A industries in EPZ, which should be gradually and selectively liberalized, concerning especially RMG in the face of growing demands from their buyers.
ICCB Vice President Latifur Rahman, ICCB Executive Board Member R. Maksud Khan, CEOs of Banks and Financial Institutions and ICCB Secretary Ataur Rahman, among others, attended the inaugural session.
After the inaugural ceremony, Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed distributed certificates among 43 successful candidates of IFC "FIT" Initiatives programme, launched by ICCB in collaboration with International Finance Corporation (IFC) of World Bank Group and eBusiness School of Ireland (eBSI).
It may be mentioned that the second batch of the FIT Initiative programme will start in December this year.