Thrust on utilising aid for trade to increase capacity
Sunday, 16 September 2007
FE Report
A seminar on 'aid for trade and supply side constraints of SMEs' was held in the city Saturday to discuss on how the benefits of aid for trade (AFT) can be effectively utilised for capacity development of Bangladesh.
Export promotion Bureau (EPB) Director General Faridul Hassan and Oxfam Acting Country Representative Sayed Nurul Alam were present in the discussion meeting, chaired by DCCI President Hossain Khaled.
The objectives of the seminar was to consolidate the point of views of all the stakeholders so that the country can prepare a position paper for deriving benefits from the AFT, as the least developed countries (LDCs) needs something additional than the integrated framework (IF).
It was discussed in the seminar that the IF and enhanced IF could not work much because of the lengthy procedure of getting benefit from the fund. If similar things happen in the field of AFT, no benefit will be accrued from the scheme.
The DCCI president in his speech said, at the moment AFT is a very crucial issue for the LDCs like Bangladesh. Every year, the country incurs a huge amount of loss for market liberalisation. So, AFT can be utilised to minimise the loss and to increase supply side capacity. We have received so many commitments, but their actual implementation is lesser than the requirement, he also said.
The EPB DG said, Bangladesh needs export diversification seriously, as the local products have been facing market access problem in the developed countries because of tariff and non-tariff barriers.
He also said, the country has export potentials in the fields of jute, ceramic tableware and other products. We are struggling for duty-free and quota-free market access, and AFT can be utilised regarding the matter.
The Oxfam acting country representative said, the major donors pledged around $15 billion for the AFT initiative, but the true commitment to date has been inadequate.
He said, from the government and private sector we should demand for increasing the amount of AFT and making it as an additional aid to the existing development aid, but by not driving the current aid commitments from the humanitarian and development priorities.
Ferdaus Ara Begum presented the keynote paper highlighting different aspects of AFT, and also proposed various areas for having AFT fund.
She said, Bangladesh has performed well in different MTS issues, but could not avail proper benefit. So, the country needs to own some effective projects and for that, integrated efforts should be taken.
Former economic minister at Geneva Badrul Ahsan, FBCCI Adviser Manzur Ahmed and WTO Cell Director Sharifa Khan were the plenary discussants of the programme. They highlighted the complex procedural issues for getting aid from the developed countries, need for transparency, and also emphasised preparing a consolidated business plan. Sharifa Khan said, whatever projects the LDCs get, a big chunk of the fund are spent for international consultants.
In the open session, a large number of local SME entrepreneurs took part in the discussion, and raised several points for mitigating the supply side constraints of the SMEs.
A seminar on 'aid for trade and supply side constraints of SMEs' was held in the city Saturday to discuss on how the benefits of aid for trade (AFT) can be effectively utilised for capacity development of Bangladesh.
Export promotion Bureau (EPB) Director General Faridul Hassan and Oxfam Acting Country Representative Sayed Nurul Alam were present in the discussion meeting, chaired by DCCI President Hossain Khaled.
The objectives of the seminar was to consolidate the point of views of all the stakeholders so that the country can prepare a position paper for deriving benefits from the AFT, as the least developed countries (LDCs) needs something additional than the integrated framework (IF).
It was discussed in the seminar that the IF and enhanced IF could not work much because of the lengthy procedure of getting benefit from the fund. If similar things happen in the field of AFT, no benefit will be accrued from the scheme.
The DCCI president in his speech said, at the moment AFT is a very crucial issue for the LDCs like Bangladesh. Every year, the country incurs a huge amount of loss for market liberalisation. So, AFT can be utilised to minimise the loss and to increase supply side capacity. We have received so many commitments, but their actual implementation is lesser than the requirement, he also said.
The EPB DG said, Bangladesh needs export diversification seriously, as the local products have been facing market access problem in the developed countries because of tariff and non-tariff barriers.
He also said, the country has export potentials in the fields of jute, ceramic tableware and other products. We are struggling for duty-free and quota-free market access, and AFT can be utilised regarding the matter.
The Oxfam acting country representative said, the major donors pledged around $15 billion for the AFT initiative, but the true commitment to date has been inadequate.
He said, from the government and private sector we should demand for increasing the amount of AFT and making it as an additional aid to the existing development aid, but by not driving the current aid commitments from the humanitarian and development priorities.
Ferdaus Ara Begum presented the keynote paper highlighting different aspects of AFT, and also proposed various areas for having AFT fund.
She said, Bangladesh has performed well in different MTS issues, but could not avail proper benefit. So, the country needs to own some effective projects and for that, integrated efforts should be taken.
Former economic minister at Geneva Badrul Ahsan, FBCCI Adviser Manzur Ahmed and WTO Cell Director Sharifa Khan were the plenary discussants of the programme. They highlighted the complex procedural issues for getting aid from the developed countries, need for transparency, and also emphasised preparing a consolidated business plan. Sharifa Khan said, whatever projects the LDCs get, a big chunk of the fund are spent for international consultants.
In the open session, a large number of local SME entrepreneurs took part in the discussion, and raised several points for mitigating the supply side constraints of the SMEs.