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Meet the Press of DCCI held
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) organized a Meet the Press on January 23, 2021. DCCI President Rizwan Rahman presented Chamber’s views and opinions over the present economic and investment scenario of the country. He also presented Chamber’s vision of policy advocacy for the year 2021.
Answering to a few questions of the journalists DCCI President Rizwan Rahman said that government has given another 2,700 crore taka as incentive out of which 54.13% has been disbursed. He said that it will be more flexible soon and will get a better pace if the process is being eased. He also proposed to establish a SME Bond or specialized SME Bank to safeguard CMSMEs in the country prior to separate cottage, micro and small industries from medium and large industry sector in the definition. As access to finance is one of the largest challenges for SMEs. Replying to another question regarding industry-academia collaboration, he said that DCCI has already signed MoUs with twelve Universities. Effective industry-academia collaboration will help industries getting skilled executives and academia will enhance skill development to face 4IR. Global FDI has already come down by 50% due to Covid-led pandemic situation. In view of this, reduced FDI inflow to Bangladesh is not an exception. We may not see a robust FDI improvement overnight in this situation but government may consider to facilitate home-grown local investors by giving them same incentives that a foreign investor enjoy. It will boost up local investment, he told. Regulatory reforms and reforms in policy framework will help Bangladesh to improve its position in various global competitive indexes. Considering the present economic and investment scenario, he requested the government to slash corporate tax rate. Moreover to attract FDI this is the time to strengthen our economic diplomacy, he added. To commemorate the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and golden jubilee of Bangladesh and to attract FDI, this year DCCI has a plan to hold DCCI Investment Summit in the Asian region, he informed. Bangladesh is reviving its economy while Europe is still in shambles, so we may look into the East and ASIAN region for greater tie-up. Moreover, we have to concentrate product and market diversification right at this moment. For the greater development of SME, he proposed SME Development Act instead of SME Policy as act will give the sector a legal framework. Some of the facilities that Bangladesh is enjoying now because of being LDC listed country will no longer be available after graduation from this status. But “it is inevitable, today or tomorrow we will be out of LDC, but for that we have to be prepared”, he said. However, government may ask for extension for few facilities after graduation. But we want to be a middle income country, we want to come out of LDC and we want to go ahead. But at the same time we have to improve in the global competitiveness indexes because after graduation we will be competitive with other countries.
DCCI Senior Vice President NKA Mobin, FCS, FCA, Vice President Monowar Hossain, Directors Md. Shahid Hossain, Golam Zilani, Hossain A Sikder and Nasiruddin A Ferdous were also present during the meet the press.
Published on: 2021-01-23