UNB, Dhaka :
International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB) has said the success of businesses can drive the growth of a country, help achieve overall sustainable development and create employment opportunities.
“Businesses are the driving force for any economy, be it capitalistic or socialistic,” according to the editorial of the current News Bulletin (July-Sept’ 2021) of the ICCB released on Sunday.
ICC Bangladesh remembered with gratitude the legendry businesspeople, including those who have passed away, for their visionary leadership and farsightedness in creating corporate culture and making the Bangladesh economy one of the fastest growing in the world.
Entrepreneurs are frequently thought of as national assets to be cultivated, motivated and remunerated to the greatest possible extent. “They’ve the ability to change the way we live and work at local, national and international levels,” said the ICCB editorial.
Over the past five decades, Bangladesh has transformed itself from being a “basket case” to one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Before the onset of the Covid-19, the economy was growing rapidly, recording an annual expansion in the range of 7- 8% for sometimes, ICCB observed.
After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, was not an ideal place for Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to do business or establish industries as the West Pakistanis (now Pakistan) were in complete control of the country and the economy.
“Bangladeshis were mainly in the mid- and lower-level service. However, some of our leading businessmen have made it possible to show the world that Bangladeshis are capable of becoming successful entrepreneurs,” the editorial reads.
Late Abul Kasem Khan from Chattogram, a district judge in 1934, was probably the first Bangladeshi to enter business leaving a job, ICCB said, adding that he established various types of industries and formed AK Khan Group in 1945 and there were only a few business entities owned by local entrepreneurs during the British era.
