LGRD Minister Md Tajul Islam on Sunday said that the stimulus packages, rolled out for offsetting the shock of Covid-19, aim to cover each class of people inculcating the advantages both in urban and rural lives.
"Bangladesh's long-established history is rooted in the goal to achieve betterment of the poor. In line with that goal, the stimulus packages aim to cover each class of people inculcating the advantages both in urban and rural lives," he said.
Tajul was addressing a policy workshop titled "COVID-induced Stimulus Packages for SMEs & Women-led Enterprises: Exploring Research-Policy Interlinkages" organised by CPD in partnership with The Asia Foundation (the Foundation) - Bangladesh under the Women's Economic Empowerment through Strengthening Market Systems (WEESMS) programme funded by the Embassy of Sweden and implemented through a partnership with iDE and the Foundation.
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The policy workshop underscored the importance to examine the linkage between public policies and research during the pandemic and to define how the challenges of the marginalised businesses have been addressed, said a press release here.
Tajul also stated that the recommendations placed on the table today would definitely be taken into necessary cognizance. Alexandra BergVon Linde, Ambassador of Embassy of Sweden, was present as the guest of honour.
She said the overarching objectives of the project include the increase of female participation in the labour force and overcoming policy-related challenges in light of COVID's impacts on the marginalised group.
Kazi Nabil Ahmed, parliamentary standing committee member on Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke at the workshop as special guest. Emphasizing and recognising the fact that women in Bangladesh do face a number of impediments on their way towards progress and empowerment, he opined that a lot of measures have taken so far even though many more things are yet to be done.
"Women-led enterprises are facing various difficulties including problems related to loans borrowing from banks," he said ensuring that more effective policy actions will be made in view of this emerging situation.
The keynote presentation at the workshop was made by Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of CPD. The study has been carried out based on the primary and secondary data and the key informant interviews (KIIs) have been carried out in following categories of respondents: (a) Government officials (b) Bank officials and (c) Beneficiaries (SMEs and women-led enterprises).
The study pointed out that, during the pandemic, a total of 27 stimulus packages have been announced with a combined fiscal and financial support of Taka 1.29 trillion. However, the support for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and women entrepreneurs are insignificant.
Shedding light on the research-policy linkage aspect, a study revealed at the workshop showed that the relevant policy-making was influenced by the urgent need of assistance of businesses raised by business associations and pressure from large borrowers.
There has been lack of sufficient guidance from the policymakers in case of selecting borrowers. Moreover, stringent regulatory challenges, lack of coordination between the government agencies, misinformation from the supply- side actors and lack of awareness among the demand-side actors, lack in market support and linkages-these have adverse effect on borrowing by SMEs.
