Trade bodies urge opposition to withdraw hartal

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FE Report The country's leading trade promotion organisations (TPOs) Wednesday urged the opposition political parties to withdraw their hartal-call for today (Thursday) and also appealed to them for resolving the prevailing political differerances through dialogue. In separate statements, the chamber bodies expressed their deep concern over confrontational politics, saying it (hartal) would adversely impact the country's economic growth and also hamper the process of its goal of becoming a mid-income country by the stipulated timeframe. Among the TPOs, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), in its statement, said the members of the business community are always against hartal in the overriding interest of the national economy. "The economy of the country is having a firm footing, thanks to the on-going export growth. The local and international investors are showing interest in making investment in the country," acting president of FBCCI Ahmed Jamal said in the statement. The statement further said: "The hartal will create an adverse impact on investment prospects of the country." It said the government and the businessmen had been taking different steps to maintain smooth supply and check price-spiralling in the market. But hartal will hamper the entire process as well as export- and import-oriented activities at Chittagong and Mongla ports. The country's apex trade body said the business community believes that hartal will create a disruption to trading activities and hamper day-to-day work of the general people. "The FBCCI believes that all political issues can be discussed in the parliament that will help consolidate democracy and retain the pace of the on-going economic progress of the country," said the statement. In a separate statement, the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka (MCCI) urged the opposition political parties to withdraw today's hartal call, in the larger interest of the nation. Expressing its grave concern over confrontational politics that has become a threat to realising the country's development potential, it also called upon all the political paries to shun the path of confrontation and resolve the prevailing crisis through the process of dialogue and negotiation. "We appeal to all concerned to avoid confortation and start dialogue. It will save the country's economy and people's well being from dislocations," President of the MCCI, Maj Gen (Retd) Amjad Khan Chowdhury said in the statement. The MCCI also urged all political parties to uphold the country's interest first and refrain themselves from taking recourse to such activities that will seriously affect its economic growth and devwelopment prospect. There is no alternative to keeping the democratic process on and making the democratic institutions stronger, it said. "There are other means to settle the differences of opinions other than hartals and politics of destruction and repression," the MCCI statement said, adding that in politics there may be differences of opinions, but those (differences) must not make the livelihood of the people hostage. The current political situation can be made more people friendly and business friendly if the ruling and opposition parties demonstrate tolerance and are willing to settle their differences through talks, it said. At this time when the global economy is coming out of recession and Bangladesh is showing some favourable signs about its sustained economic growth, policy continuity and stable political environment are of crucial importance to achieve its socio economic objectives as a nation, it added. Over 40 per cent of the country's annual export growth, in tandem with favourable yields in agriculture and moderate growths in manufacturing and service industries, has yielded a 6.7 per cent growth in rate of its gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal year (FY), 2010 2011, the MCCI statement noted. Bangladesh achieved 5.7 per cent real GDP growth rate against 5.0 per cent negative growth rate of the global economy in fiscal 2008 2009 at the time of the global recession at its peak, it mentioned, adding this trend continued in fiscal 2009 10 when 6.1 per cent real GDP growth rate was achieved. Unfortunately, repeated calls for hartals by different interest groups do not allow business activities to continue unobstructed at the pace necessary to engender the desired economic growth, said the chamber. The business community still remembers the bleak days in the past when frequent hartals for extended periods kept the economy at a stand still, it mentioned. "Hartals will make our economy decelerate, and our markets will shift to other countries where more stable political climate exists. We need to avoid this situation by all means," the MCCI President, Mr Amjad noted. The chamber also requested all parties and interest groups to stay away from all political activities that are counter productive, saying at this time what the nation needs most, is commitment from the politicians to the cause of the common people and their pledge to make the nation, free from poverty and create employment opportunities for all. In a separate statement, the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) urged the opposition political parties to withdraw their hartal-call in the greater interest of the country. "Hartal will aggravate the sufferings of the common people who are already struck by fuel price-hike and high inflation," the DCCI said in its statement. The country's economy is already in a bad shape because of poorer availibility of gas and energy, high bank lending rate, soaring inflation, volatile stock market, infrastructural bottlenecks especilly in communication, the DCCI stated adding such types of hartal would badly hamper the country's economic growth performance. "Rapid industrialisation is essential to maintain the government's vision 2021 and related economic goals and for the country to become the 30th largest economy in the world by 2030 and for its manufacturing sector to play a pivotal role in addressing its rising unemployment problem," the DCCI said.