Policy reforms needed to foster private investment: expert
Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister M Tofazzel Hossain Miah called for necessary policy reforms and alignment to raise private investment growth in the country.
He also emphasised active initiatives of the private sector alongside government measures aimed to augment private investment.
He made these remarks while speaking at the "Validation Workshop on the Report of the Study on Expanding Private Investment in the Context of LDC Graduation", held at the NEC conference room at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar in the capital yesterday.
The Support to Sustainable Graduation Project (SSGP) of the Economic Relations Division (ERD) organised the event.
Presided over by Md Shahriar Kader Siddiky, secretary of ERD, the workshop was addressed among others by Shaikh Yusuf Harun, executive chairman of Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), Sharifa Khan, former senior secretary of ERD, Mohsina Yasmin, executive member of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), Md Sameer Sattar, president of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI), Selim Raihan, executive director of South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), Farid Aziz, project director of SSGP, and Ferdaus Ara Begum, chief executive officer of Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD).
Several in-depth sectoral studies are being conducted by the SSGP under the guidance of the National Committee on LDC Graduation to assess the impact of LDC graduation and to formulate relevant strategies accordingly.
As part of that process, a study is being conducted titled "Expanding Private Investment in the Context of LDC Graduation" with SANEM.
The study called for the rationalisation of customs and tax structures, dynamic policy reforms, strengthening industry-academia collaborations for skills development, providing targeted support to export-oriented industries, and enhancing regional economic integration.
Tofazzel emphasised enhancing productivity and decreasing dependency on incentives to prepare the country for the post-LDC scenario and also called for increased investment in research and development in the private sector.
Meanwhile, Siddiky emphasised on creating a business-friendly environment to foster private investment.
In her remarks, Sharifa highlighted the importance of phase-wise implementation of planned economic zones.
Harun added that the government was targeting to operationalise four economic zones each year.
Raihan, in his presentation, said that large-scale infrastructure projects were a driving force that accelerated the economic growth of developing countries such as Bangladesh.
In this context, the SANEM executive director noted that private investment growth would largely depend on timely implementation of mega-infrastructure projects.
Sattar said a strong arbitration system needed to be established to resolve business and investment-related disputes, suggesting to revise and update the existing Arbitration Act.