BANGLADESH slipped two notches in the global competitiveness ranking by the World Economic Forum to rank 105th, out of 141 countries, in 2019 due mainly to significant deterioration in most of the drivers including governance, infrastructure and macroeconomic stability of competitiveness. In 2018, Bangladesh was ranked 103th out of 140 countries. Institution and governance are the weakest areas in the business competitiveness where majority of indicators under the 12 drivers of productivity perceived to be deteriorated and incidences of bribes for awarding public contracts, tax payments and illegal diversion of public fund increased. Judicial independence and freedom of the press also deteriorated in the year, the report said.
The Centre for Policy Dialogue, local partner of the WEF, disclosed the above matters while releasing the Bangladesh part of the Global Competitiveness Report 2019 on Wednesday. In the ranking of the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), the country’s position dropped by seven notches in macroeconomic stability, by six steps each in ICT adoption and labour market, by five notches in infrastructure, by three steps each in financial system and innovation, and by one positions each in institution, skills and business dynamism of the pillars. Most of the reasons can be sourced to political patronage and corruption. The financial sector is continuing to struggle with its poor performance. Corrupt practice was everywhere which encouraged lending under political pressure not related to business.
Businessmen had to bribe officials to get public contracts, or when they were engaged in export-import, or when they were asked to pay taxes. Rise in organised crimes and violence also caused higher business cost in the year. Despite having abundant and cheap labour, the country failed to avail the opportunity due to lack of ICT skills of them.
No doubt, corruption has become a major burden for businesses, which reduce competitiveness both in local and global markets. Extend of corruption further increased nowadays, which squeezed scope for doing business by increasing cost of business particularly for new entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises.
