2024-07-30 01:02:43
The ‘Complete Shutdown’ program by students demanding quota reform in government jobs has caused a loss of $10 billion to the country’s economy, amounting to around one lakh 18 thousand crores in Bangladeshi currency. Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICI) said that the amount of losses is increasing every day.
On Sunday (July 28), FICI President Javed Akhter highlighted this observation during an exchange of views with Prime Minister’s Advisor on Private Industry and Investment Salman F. Rahman. At this time, other leaders of Fiki were present.
Leaders of the Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICI) said the country is slowly making up for the loss with limited online and physical connectivity. But full operations are still not back and we are only utilizing maximum 50 percent of economic potential.
We need full broadband connectivity and transport facilities to exploit the industry’s full potential. Apart from this, businesses are facing various challenges including clearing of goods from ports and imposition of additional delay charges due to inability to operate during shutdown.
They said many small and medium enterprises dependent on export-oriented industries, banking, insurance, logistics, infrastructure, telecom, e-commerce, freelancing, ride-hailing, software development and social commerce and many others were affected by the shutdown. The financial impact on the industry can run into millions of dollars.
FIKI leaders said that many existing investors are unsure about starting regular operations. They said various challenges and inefficiencies in product clearance, operations management are driving up business costs. If we fail to prioritize ease of doing business for our current investors, potential investors will be discouraged from considering Bangladesh as a potential investment destination.
FIKI’s leaders put forward several recommendations to recover from the damage caused by the ‘Complete Shutdown’ program.
They are-
Fully data connection: Although the broadband connection has been restored. This connection is weak and many places are still not available. We need to bring it back to normal.
* 21 sectors FMCG, Logistics, Health Insurance, Banking, IT & Technology Companies, Mobile Companies, Testing & Inspection Companies, Energy & Power and FIKI require resumption of full mobile data connectivity.
* Safety and Security: It is important to restore full confidence in safety and security to build trust among local and foreign workers working in Bangladesh. Activities need to be disrupted to restore stability.
* Increased comfort and confidence in market and demand generation.
* It is important to lift the curfew and resume normal activities.
Facilitating Business: Expediting clearance of goods from ports and outbound shipments.
* Waiver of all late duty on all goods not redeemed from July 18. This will go a long way in reducing the impact of port congestion and delay charges.
* Exclusion of mandatory lab testing for materials that are regularly imported from the same source. This will significantly reduce the time spent on clearing and port congestion.
* Setting up BSTI full testing facility (microbiology testing) at Chittagong port so that we can reduce the time for imported products.
* Coordinating bank and customs house operation hours. For example, customs houses were open this Saturday to reduce backlog, but banks were not. Hence the duty could not be paid and material clearing was affected.
* Payment and regularization of all dues of electricity companies.