Economic Reporter :
Experts at a webinar on Monday called for increasing trade facilitation and reduction of customs tariffs and supplementary duties to become regional transit and investment hub.
They mentioned that Bangladesh should focus the Chinese, Indian and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market in order to gain from fortune of neighbor of such big markets.
The country should also promote Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) initiative to promote connectivity and immediately ratify the Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) convention, they observed.
They made the observation at the webinar on “Ease of doing business: status of 2021”, organised by International Business Forum of Bangladesh (IBFB) and Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI), said a press release.
Md Sirazul Islam, Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) was present at the webinar as guest of honor while Jibon Krishna Saha Roy, Director (One Stop Service and Regulatory Reform), BIDA presented the key note paper at the webinar.
Ambassador M Humayun Kabir, President of the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) gave the welcome speech in the webinar.
MS Siddiqui, Legal Economist and Vice President of IBFB, Dr Muhammad Abdul Mazid, Former Secretary and Ex-Chairman of NBR and Chairman of the Finance Committee of IBFB, and Dr AFM Matiur Rahman, Former Secretary and Vice-Chairman of the Industry Leadership Committee of IBFB spoke as Designated Discussants.
Humayun Rashid, President, IBFB and Managing Director and CEO of the Energypac Power Generation Limited, was the chairperson of the webinar.
At the webinar, speakers also mentioned that Bangladesh can take the benefits of TIR convention only with internal reforms and readiness to serve the region as trading hub such as the Netherlands, Singapore or Dubai.
They opined that the ‘Doing Business’ report is not intended as a complete assessment of competitiveness or of the business environment of a country and should rather be considered as a proxy of the regulatory framework faced by the private sector in a country.
