BUSINESSMEN at a seminar on Sunday demanded that the government should improve infrastructural and logistical facilities in the country’s land ports to boost regional trade.Although we have immense trade opportunities in the South Asia region, non-tariff barriers are holding us back. We should build modern warehouses, testing facilities, connecting roads and automated systems to increase capacity of our land ports for boosting trade. Such facilities are urgently needed.Businessmen should be allowed to import any goods through any port and the government should allow the business leaders to build facilities at their own cost to boost trade. The visa problem with India was another concern for the businessmen.Bangladesh Land Port Authority Chairman mentioned in the report that the government with the help of the World Bank is currently working on a Tk 140-crore project to develop the Benapole land port. He also said that a wrong assessment of oil price made the generator use costly in land ports and the authorities were working on the issue.Chairman of National Board of Revenue also said the NBR would look into the matters related with the Revenue Board. Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka Pankaj Saran said that the land port issue was very important for business between the two countries. Shipping Minister said the government was continuously working to develop the land ports but as they had bad experiences when such facilities were allotted to the private sector they decided to do it by themselves.Land ports remain the lifelines of trade between our country and its closest neighbours. The government should go all out to facilitate the implementations of effective and proper infrastructure so that the volume of land based trade goes on increasing. Trade would only occur if both nations benefit – to facilitate this and to promote increased growth and development the volume of trade must grow. There are few other alternatives to growth based on trade.Besides, high quality infrastructure would also lead to higher revenues for the government which be used for further social infrastructure facility development. Keeping things unchanged would only lead to a reduction in growth and economic development. This must be avoided at all costs. Bangladesh must enhance its trade volumes with the immediate neighbours, particularly exports to India, aiming to narrow the existing ever expanding BOP imbalance. And for that improved infrastructures at land ports should be ensured without delay.
