Aziz suggests BHBFC housing facilities at competitive prices

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FE Report
As a public financial institution, Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (BHBFC) should take initiatives to provide housing facilities to the people at competitive prices, Finance Adviser Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam said at the BHBFC annual conference in the city Thursday.
Right to a dwelling-place is one of the fundamental rights of the people. Demand for new houses is on the rise day by day in the country as a result of the population growth and increase in purchasing power of the people. So, as a state-run housing corporation, BHBFC should come forward to play a pioneering role in ensuring housing for all of the country.
Terming the country's housing industry a very competitive sector, he said besides the BHBFC, different commercial banks, financial institutions and private-owned enterprises are providing house building loans to people. The national housing corporation should give loans to the people at low interest rate in order to help them survive in the highly competitive market, the Finance Adviser suggested.
Stressing the need for improving its image to turn it into a popular public enterprise, he also laid stress on introduction of advanced technology and modern management to make BHBFC's activities more sustainable.
About government's expectation in this respect, Mirza Aziz said, it is very natural that the government wants to see the national housing corporation as a profitable entity. Along with making profit, HBFC has to carry out its social responsibility to solve the acute housing crisis in the country.
Referring to the proposals for increasing manpower and liquidity in this public enterprise, he said the need for more human resource can be fulfilled by creating a skilled and efficient workforce. Preference should be given to issuance of more new debentures in a bid to solve its liquidity crisis.
During investing money in any enterprise, the investors emphasise three things, such as liquidity of the organisation concerned, safety of their investments, and the rate of interest, he said. In spite of offering high interest rate by an enterprise, investors will not show their willingness to invest if the organisation does not have plenty of liquidity and their investments are not safe from all adversities, he observed.
He also urged the public and private house builders to prefer urban and municipal areas to metropolitan cities to stop indiscriminate utilisation of cultivable lands and also to ensure proper use of barren and uncultivable lands of the country.