The country's apex trade body, FBCCI, is heavily burdened with its large-sized leadership and the present board finds it a 'problem' while making coordination and taking decisions.
The present board of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) consists of 80 directors, who represent different sectors and regional bodies.
There are some 409 associations, 87 chambers, and 20 joint chambers as member bodies of the FBCCI.
There is a provision that 46, out of 80, directors will be elected by direct vote of members -- 23 each from chamber and association groups.
The remaining 34 are nominated directors -- 17 each from chamber and association groups.
After being elected as the FBCCI director, a businessman gets awarded the status of commercially important person (CIP) by the government.
However, since the number of FBCCI board members has reached 80, presently, all are not awarded the status.
They are also invited to different government and state events on a priority basis.
FBCCI President Md Jashim Uddin, in a recent letter to Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi, requested him not to issue any more trade organisation licence in favour of any initiative to set up a chamber or association.
At the same time, he urged the minister not to further enhance the size of the board of directors of the FBCCI by raising the number of nominated directors.
In the letter, Mr Jasim Uddin also mentioned that the FBCCI board had recently recommended that the ministry of commerce provide trade organisation licences to 26 proposed chambers and associations.
After getting the licences, the newly-formed chambers and associations have started to contact the apex trade body to be enlisted as member bodies of the FBCCI.
"We are facing immense complications over the issue," he wrote, adding that the newly formed chambers and associations were overlapping the existing chamber and association bodies.
Besides, he wrote, the size of the FBCCI board of directors is continuously enhancing.
Mr Jasim Uddin referred to an advice of Salman F Rahman, the private sector industry and investment adviser to the prime minister, who asked him to stop enlistment of new chambers and association with the FBCCI.
Mr Rahman also suggested that the number of directors of the FBCCI be lowered to 25-30 by bringing about cluster based reform, the FBCCI president mentioned.
Contacted over the phone on Sunday, Mr Jasim Uddin told the FE that the introduction of the 'nominated director system' back in 2003 had created the disorder.
"The size of the FBCCI board can be of 40 directors at best," he said.
FBCCI Vice-President Habib Ullah Dawn said there were 10 to 12 associations in one sector which had caused the complication now.
"Some people formed these associations to raise the number of voters to get favour in election period," he said.
Mr Dawn said the issue of lowering the number of nominated directors in the FBCCI board was also discussed at a meeting with Salman F Rahman.
Former FBCCI president Mir Nasir Hossain said there should be a 'reasonable' size of the board of directors of the apex trade body so that it could perform effectively.
"In that case, chambers can be represented on a geographical basis while associations can be represented by trade-wise clusters," he added.
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