Businesses want meeting with PM to remove obstacles to investment

The country's leading businessmen have sought a meeting with the Prime Minister for her initiatives to remove impediments to investment in the country.
They said the Prime Minister can give a way-out how to accelerate the pace of economic growth.
Their suggestion came at a discussion meeting on 'A New Investment Regime for Bangladesh', organised by the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) in Dhaka on Saturday.
Speakers at the meeting highlighted the urgency for initiating a second generation policy reform to help spur the stagnant economic growth.
"The government should set up a high-powered committee to initiate the second generation policy reform and take action against unmanaged micro corruption and rent-seeking," said Dhaka University Economics professor Dr. Selim Raihan while presenting a keynote paper on the subject.
"There was no major policy reform over the last two decades," said the professor adding that the marginal benefits of the first generation reforms have been diminished quite significantly.
The Seventh Five-Year Plan (7th FYP) sets the target of 8.0 per cent GDP growth rate by the year 2020. This requires a huge leap forward from the current level of 6.0 per cent average growth rate. To achieve the target, speakers at the meeting said, the country needs a new investment regime with major policy reforms to bring dynamism in various fields of the economy.
Speakers at the meeting also identified a string of bottlenecks including political uncertainty, weak infrastructure and institutions, high cost of doing business, slow pace in implementing mega projects and massive corruption and rent-seeking hindering investment in the country.
The MCCI organised the discussion meeting in collaboration with the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) at the MCCI conference room at Motijeel on Saturday. It was attended by a large number of economists, researchers, businessmen, bankers, academics and officials from the government and the non-government organisations.
Despite odds, the country achieved an average GDP growth rate of six plus per cent over the last one decade and has recently been upgraded from low-income country (LIC) to lower-middle income country (LMIC). But the country needs at least 8 per cent GDP growth rate to be upgraded to the status of Middle Income Country by the year 2021.
"To achieve the target, the country needs to increase its investment, tax-GDP ratio and should focus more on policy reforms," said Bangladesh Bank former governor Mohammed Farashuddin. He stressed the need for more coordination among various government policies.
"With contractionary monetary policy announced by the central bank, you can not expect reduction of interest rate," said the former governor.  In this regard, he mentioned that inflation rate upto 8.0 per cent is not harmful.
Of the world's FDI flows of about US$800 billion, Bangladesh grabs only peanut, said Farashuddin urging Board of Investment (BOI) Executive Chairman Dr. S. A. Samad to be more active to attract more FDI.
"The BoI should allocate at least 2.0 per cent of electricity. And the government should immediately settle the dispute with the Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) which is spreading bad name for the country, said the former banker. He also identified political instability and lack of good governance as some of the major reasons behind the dwindling flow of FDI.
Presided over by MCCI president Syed Nasim Manzur, the meeting was addressed among others by former minister and Jatiya Party leader AKM Maidul Islam, SANEM chairman Dr. Bazlul Haque Khondker, former commerce secretary Sohel Ahmed Chowdhury, finance secretary Siddiqur Rahman, businessmen ASM Mainuddin Monem, Tabith Mohammed Awal of Multimode Group, Uttara Group Chairman Matiur Rahman and Western Marine Shipyard Ltd Chairman Md. Saiful Islam.
To increase the tax-GDP ratio, Maidul Islam highlighted the urgency for setting up tax offices at every upazila, which, he said, will help increase the number of tax-payers. To overcome the underdeveloped road infrastructure, he suggested for integrated multimode transport system with proper development of rail and riverine transports.
Some of the speakers stressed the need for development of social infrastructure like human resources as many of them are not capable of negotiating and applying their knowledge. They also gave emphasis to development of physical infrastructure.
They said weak infrastructure is a big concern with lack of electricity and gas.  Delayed implementation of the infrastructural projects is also increasing costs of doing business. To achieve the growth target, the investment-GDP ratio should be above 32 per cent from the present state of 28 per cent. They underscored the need for efficient public investment in social and physical infrastructures to facilitate private investment.
Public expenditure on health and education is very low compared to the neighbouring countries, they opined.
Earlier, Mr Nasim Manzur in his inaugural address pointed out a number of issues which were causing serious impediments to business and demanded appropriate initiatives from the government to address the issues.
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