A REPORT in a national daily on Wednesday said that the government in a policy directive has asked all concerned ministries and department to prepare plans of actions to overcome challenges export oriented industries are facing as well as preparing an exit policy for ailing RMG industries to weather all odds in post-Covid business environment.
Here in our view the call for an exit policy for ailing industries mainly in the RMG sector deserves special attention. The industry is facing severe financial crisis as business orders plummeted. Many factories are facing insolvency in want of business and cash and it is not unusual that many may want to close the business to avoid further loss making. They are failing to pay workers’ wages, mortgage installments and bank loans.
So quite reasonably there need to be an orderly way of dissolving businesses if anyone wants and it needs new rules how to make the closure and meet outstanding obligations. We understand that the government stimulus packages may provide the financial support to factories looking for closure. But there must be clear guidelines for meeting obligations to different parties and lenders.
The directive recently issued by the Ministry of Commerce has mostly dwelt with common issues however demanding that they must be vigorously pursued to address the issues such as creating special fund to bail out SMEs, simplifying trade procedures, foreign investment rules, cutting lead time for exports, sooth execution of external trade and such others.
We believe most such issues need to be addressed by the government and private sector leaders particularly exporters of apparel goods which accounts for over 80 percent of the country’s export. Need no mention that Bangladesh’s export chain has suffered seriously amid the outbreak of Covid disease and RMG buyers are still struggling to restore their supply chain.
Here the country’s business and particularly external trade now needs vigorous government support to fully resume production in domestic front and find new export markets. But we all know that ours is a government which can easily issue orders but lacks the capacity to implement the orders. Corrupt from top to bottom, most government leaders are busy making illegal fortune while an inept bureaucracy mostly fails to deliver. We must prepare ourselves to face new reality in all fronts.
