Targeting a business and investment -friendly landscape, Bangladesh could increase its level of domestic and foreign investments and remain firm on its growth trajectory, said Salman Fazlur Rahman, Private Industry and Investment Adviser to the Prime Minister on Thursday.
He also highlighted the need to increase the tax base, decrease the tax rates, and further improve the country’s infrastructures.
Salman F Rahman was addressing the launching of Bangladesh Business Climate Index (BBX) 2023-2024 in an event at the Gulshan office of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry(MCCI).
It is a joint publication of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka (MCCI) and Policy Exchange Bangladesh (PEB).
Salman also believed that there were three BBX reports, a trend could be identified, which BIDA could analyze and base their actions on.
Lokman Hossain Miah, Executive Chairman (Senior Secretary), Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), attended the event as the Special Guest while Farooq Ahmed, Secretary-General and CEO, MCCI moderated.
BBX 2023-2024 is the third iteration of Bangladesh’s first home-grown index that gauges the country’s business climate. At present, it uses 11 pillars, including the latest ‘Environmental Regulation and Standards’ pillar. These pillars contain a total of 39 sub-indicators that are used to calculate the index.
MCCI President Kamran T. Rahman said that the BBX 2023-2024 evaluates the country’s comprehensive business environment, ecosystem, uncertainties, disruptions in the global supply chain, and the escalating situation arising from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Israel-Palestine conflict.
He believed the study would help investors and policy makers with industry-specific action programs.
In his keynote presentation, Dr. M. Masrur Reaz, Chairman & CEO, Policy Exchange Bangladesh, mentioned that during 2023-2024, the BBX score has dropped to 58.75 from last year’s 61.95, showing that significant efforts are needed to address business environment challenges.
There were improvements in three pillars coupled with drops in seven pillars. Rajshahi was the best performing region while Barisal came last.
To unlock the country’s potential, he emphasized improving infrastructure and logistics, strengthening financial systems, enhancing legal and regulatory frameworks, bolstering institutional governance, etc.
