Staff Reporter :
Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Mukhisa Kituyi on Sunday said that social inclusion is critical for the long-term survival of businesses where the enterprises must be an equal partner with governments and civil societies in finding ways to progress.
“Politicians should think about sustainable development and trade policies in order to take Bangladesh forward,” he made the comments at concluding session of the “ICC International Conference on Global
Economic Recovery: Asian Perspective” in the city on Sunday. ICC organised the conference to mark its 20 years of presence in Bangladesh on Saturday.
About 500 business leaders from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh participated in the conference.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed presided over the function. John Danilovice, ICC secretary general, Paris, Kyle Kelhofer, country manager, IFC, a concern of World Bank, Mahfuj Anam, Daily Star Editor, Atiur Rahman, governor of Bangladesh Bank, Rishad Bathiudeen, industry and commerce minister of Sri Lanka, Sunil Bahadur Thapa, commerce and supply minister of Nepal and Dr. Pwint Sana, deputy minister of commerce, Myanmar addressed the function.
Observing that Bangladesh is on the right track, Kituyi, who arrived in Dhaka on an official visit, said the primary objective of trade is to develop standard of living and to reduce poverty.
“Bangladesh is a country of 16 crore people and the GDP growth rate here is more than six percent. This suggests it will not take much time for the country to get out of the level of a developing country,” said the UNCTAD secretary general.
Kituyi said Bangladesh is not an isolated island and can expect to move forward at the same pace as the world economy. “However, for this to happen, the politicians should think about adopting sustainable development and trade policies, and the trend should continue,” he added.
Dr. Atiur Rahman said different countries in Asia have been impacted by the global financial crisis in varying degrees, depending on the structures and extents of external openness of their economies.
Bangladesh was impacted relatively lightly because of her limited, regulated openness, particularly to short term capital flows. The financial sector in Bangladesh remained free of toxic assets and contagion from the external turmoil, and liquidity conditions remain normal.
The government and Bangladesh Bank adopted fiscal and monetary measures underpinning domestic demand and maintaining easy credit conditions, like other countries in the region, added the BB governor.
The country earns forex reserve that is equivalent to seven months import payment value, he said.
