2013 was a challenging year: ICCB

Mahbubur Rahman, president of International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh, speaks at the ICCB annual council 2013 at a local hotel in Dhaka yesterday. Latifur Rahman, ICCB vice president, was also present. Photo: ICCB

The year 2013 has been one of the most challenging years for the Bangladesh economy, analysts said at the 19th annual council of International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh yesterday.
Failure to implement the Padma bridge project, collapse of a garment factory killing over 1,100 people, US suspension of GSP facilities, large-scale financial scams and unprecedented political violence have been very damaging to the country's image, they said.
“Although it marks a drop in GDP growth rate for two consecutive years, growth of over 6 percent is quite respectable where the projected growth of developing countries was around 5 percent in 2013,” according to the annual market update 2013 of Citibank NA Bangladesh.
The drop in GDP growth rate from 6.23 percent in FY12 is mainly attributed to the slowdowns in agriculture and service sector, the chamber said in a statement yesterday.
The slowdown in the agriculture sector from 3.11 percent in FY12 to 2.17 percent in FY13 is largely due to the base effect of two consecutive years of record growth and lower output due to the falling prices, it said.
However, in the outgoing year, Bangladesh has successfully coped with the global challenges, the chamber said.
“However, political confrontation during the third-quarter of 2013 resulted in tragic loss of lives of innocent people, in addition to huge economic losses; otherwise the country could have easily achieved more than 7 percent GDP growth.”
The productivity of Bangladeshi workers is on par with Chinese workers in well-managed firms, with their wages being one-fifth of their Chinese counterparts (half those in Vietnam), according to the recent World Bank reports.
The country's unique competitive position comes at a time when China is in the process of outsourcing 80 million jobs from labour-intensive industries, the chamber quoted the World Bank as saying.
The Council adopted the executive board report and the audited financial statements of ICC Bangladesh for the year ended on December 31.
BGMEA President Atiqul Islam, ICCB President Mahbubur Rahman and Vice President Latifur Rahman attended the programme among others.