Pro-active bureaucracy is essential to attract both local and foreign investments for expediting the country's economic development, said the country's top businessmen at a function in the city Monday.
They expressed the opinion that the government should discard the old mindset and play the lead role to boost local and foreign investments as this will help create job opportunities, which is a pre-requisite for poverty alleviation.
The Department for International Development (DFID), the British donor agency, and International Finance Corporation (IFC), a financing arm of the World Bank, jointly organised the function on the occasion of launching the "Regulatory Reform Core Group" in a city hotel.
Inaugurating the two-day programme entitled "Stimulating Private Sector Development Reforms for Economic Empowerment of Bangladesh" Syed Manzoor Elahi, a member of the Regulatory Reforms Commission (RRC), said, "The old mindset fostered by the bureaucrats needs to be changed as there is no alternative of local and foreign investments for bringing dynamism in the country's economic growth."
"If we really want to get rid of the curse of poverty, we'll just have to have foreign and local investments to create employment opportunities. Because, employment creation is the only solution to poverty alleviation," he said.
Referring to China and India, he presented a comparative case study behind their recent economic boom saying despite being a socialist country, China opened up its window of investment for the foreign investors since the 80's.
"Take a look at China now, the country gained huge success in attracting foreign investments as it had pro-active bureaucracy, once it was a totalitarian state that did not like foreign direct investment (FDI)," he said.
On the other hand, he said, India had also opened up its doors for the foreign investors, but its pace of success is not like China's, as its bureaucracy is still not pro-active to foreign investments.
President of International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh (ICC,B) Mahbubur Rahman, who was also present at the function, said the economic development of a country is not possible without private sector investment that contributes more to the GDP than the public sector.
"The private sector accounted for around 82 -85 per cent of the entire investment of the country and is contributing 19.15 per cent to the GDP, and public sector only five per cent, indicating immense potentials of the private investment in the country," he said.
Mahbubur Rahman said, "If the contribution of the private sector investments to the GDP climbs to 32-34 per cent in the coming days, it can create 35 per cent job opportunities up from current 24 per cent."
He said, the country is now passing through difficult times with spiraling fuel price hike and high inflation posing as the biggest challenges.
President of Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Waliur Rahman Bhuiyan termed foreign investment as an urgent need for the country for job creation.
"Since we can not ensure investment, we can not ensure job market and enhance the purchasing capacity of the people, which is indispensable for poverty alleviation," he added.
Quoting a former NBR chairman, he claimed that the foreign investors pay 70 percent of the total revenue earned by the country as tax. "Foreign investors bring ethics, discipline and professionalism in the country," he said.
Opposing any restriction on foreign investment in any business sector, FICCI president said discouraging step sends a negative signal as the world will turn into a single market at the end of the day.
He, however, said the foreign investors also have to be responsible by making commitments for community development.
Walliur also said, "Domestic resources are not enough for the real economic development of a country without the support of FDI. So, the reality is that FDI is necessary."
Pro-active bureaucracy seen vital to attract investments
FE Report | Published: August 12, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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