Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Chamber leaders on Thursday expressed their deep concern over frequent hartal calls by Jamaat-e-Islami and requested the party concerned to shun the path of hartal for the greater interest of the national economy.
They said business activities and industrial production suffered serious disruption during Jamaat’s five-day hartal (Thursday, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) enforced throughout the country affecting the overall business and investment climate.
“Jamaat’s hartal seriously disrupted civic life, import-export trade, production cycle, supply chain and banking transactions. The hartal programme has also wrecked confidence of both local and foreign investors,” Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers and Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) told The New Nation yesterday.
Terming hartal as a ‘destructive political programme,’ he said, the country’s business community never supports such type of programme because it not only damages trade and commerce but also tarnishes the country’s image abroad.
Kazi Akram, however, urged the political parties to find an alternative political programme to hartal for keeping the wheels of economy moving.
Terming hartal as a key ‘hindrance’ to the country’s economic prosperity, Rokia Afzal Rahman, President of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industries (MCCI) said, “We are always against hartal as all the economic activities come to standstill during hartal days.”
She said losses from a single day’s hartal is irreparable and the economy will bear the brunt of it.
“We always expect sensible role from the political leaders and they should have thought the economic cost prior to calling such a destructive programme,” she added.
Rokia Afzal Rahman, one of the leading women entrepreneurs of the country and former adviser of the caretaker government, further said, when the growth of economy remained stagnant in the wake sluggish investment and poor infrastructure, an unstable political situation resulted from hartals could further deepen the economic woes.
The MCCI leader called all the parties to refrain from the hartal programme in future for the greater interest of the country.
When asked, she said, establishment of a congenial political environment is a key challenge for the Bangladesh economy which needs rapid structural changes to achieve a higher GDP growth to over 7.0 per cent.
“When the trade and industry has been struggling owing to rising production cost and high lending rates, recurrent of hartals will make the industries more vulnerable by pushing of their production cost further,” said M Atiqul Islam, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).
He said the business community is virtually frightened by the growing political instability and the exporters were more alarmed by its negative impact on the production and shipment.
“The garment industry could not survive under such a political stress as it sends negative message to the global buyers,” he said, addling, “The buyers may shift export orders to a third country in the wake of fresh political unrest in Bangladesh and it could lead to closure a good number of local factories.”
The BGMEA leader further said violent street protest, arson and attack on the members of law-enforcement agencies during hartal are sending back many potential foreign investors at a time when many developed countries are looking to relocate their industries to Bangladesh. “If the investors turn their faces from here, it will be damaging for the economy,” he noted.
“Hartal yields nothing good but causes loss of lives, property and economy. So, the political parties should not enforce such a programmes considering interest of the business and economy,” he said.
