The D-8 Chamber of Commerce and Industry (D-8 CCI) will propose alternative trade financing to address the pressure on the local currency and the foreign exchange (forex) reserve.
The chamber will suggest three modes of alternative trade financing - block chain technology, barter, and cross currency swap.
"We think this is right time to look into it (alternative trade financing) to mitigate pressure on currency and forex reserve," D-8 CCI President Sheikh Fazle Fahim said in an interview with The Financial Express (FE) on Sunday.
Indonesia was already doing cross currency swap with three countries and they benefited, he noted.
The D-8 CCI is an umbrella chamber body of the eight developing nations (D8) - Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey. The D-8 members joined hands in 1997 with an objective of raising economic cooperation among them. The D-8 members comprise a US$5.0 trillion economy.
One national chamber from each of the D-8 member countries is a member of the D-8 CCI. It will hold a business forum and an exposition in Dhaka on July 26-27 - with the theme being 'Value chain integration across economic sectors' - to commemorate its silver jubilee anniversary.
Mr Fahim said every country was facing inflationary pressure in the recent period, their supply chains were disrupted, and food and energy security became the call of the hour.
All these challenges emerged due to impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and the global developments during the last six months.
"High inflation, currency devaluation, and forex reserve volatility are causing economic stagflation and supply chain disruption-like situation. Thus, the time is ripe to explore value chain integration in the D-8 nations for trade, investment and economic sustainability."
He further said the D-8 CCI prepared a work-plan on integration of seed development with the agriculture production process, their entry into market, and other manufacturing sector inputs, blue economy, sustainability, circular economy, green energy, and micro, small and medium enterprises.
At the same time, technology-based cyber security, 4th Industrial Revolution, start-up ecosystem and innovation were also getting importance in the D-8 CCI's work-plan.
Mr Fahim noted that the trade-body would map out the strong sectors of every member country and would place the lists of products and services fedora their respective trade or commerce ministries, so that they could advance towards the signing of D8 Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).
The D-8 CCI will also work on creation of universal harmonisation and standardisation of goods and services for their free flow, so that no non-tariff barriers are created. The chamber body will work on targeting a bigger stake of the $7.0-trillion global 'halal' economy.
He opined that the D-8 leaders were eager for ratification of PTA. Once this is done, the chamber will work on the process of signing a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CEPA) among the D-8 member states, which can help overcome the challenges.
Regarding Sri Lankan crisis, Mr Fahim said the main problem began there with investment in the Hambantota Port. It was not a feasible project for various reasons.
"But, Bangladesh's macro-economic policy has been stable. In terms of projects and development, Bangladesh's basket is diversified. There is no question over feasibility of the Bangladeshi projects."
The country's forex reserve in 2019 was around $30 billion, which is now around $40 billion. "I don't find anything to be alarming from the recent ups and downs."
"The currency volatility issue, which is creating pressure on forex reserve, is now no more unique for Bangladesh. This is happening in Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt, and everywhere."
syful-islam@outlook.com