Govt to stabilise economy before restoring growth

Finance and Planning Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said the government is working to restore the country’s fragile economy, with efforts focused first on stabilising the situation before gradually restoring economic momentum.
“The economy we inherited was fragile, and work is underway to recover it. We are creating a pathway to move out of this situation and are dealing with the emergency situation,” the minister said.
He made the remarks on Monday at the Bangladesh Industry Research, Development and Innovation (BIRDI) Grants Awarding Ceremony at Hotel InterContinental Dhaka.
The event was organised under the Skills for Industry Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (SICIP) of the Finance Division of the Ministry of Finance to promote industry-oriented research and innovation and strengthen industrial capacity.
The initiative aims to connect researchers with industrial enterprises and develop practical solutions to real-world business challenges.
Khosru said the benefits of the government’s reforms, regulatory relaxations, policy measures and incentives would gradually become visible.
“We will first stabilise the economy, and then gradually restore momentum. Bangladesh will move into a new phase of growth,” he said.
He said the government was also establishing skills development centres across the country to create employment opportunities and build a skilled workforce.
“Taken together, the economy of Bangladesh will move in a positive direction,” Khosru said.
Highlighting Bangladesh’s weakness in research and development (R&D), the minister said the country spends only around 0.3% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on R&D, one of the lowest rates among peer middle-income countries.
He pointed to countries such as South Korea, China, India and Vietnam, which have made significantly larger investments in research and innovation.
Citing Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics data, Khosru said the situation was even weaker at the industrial level, with manufacturing enterprises spending, on average, less than Tk500 per worker annually on research and innovation.
“As a result, Bangladesh continues to struggle to compete for global market share, foreign direct investment and high-value employment,” he said.
The minister stressed the need for a decisive shift towards a research-driven and innovation-based economy, calling for greater investment in R&D, stronger industry-academia collaboration and more emphasis on practical solutions.
“High-return research cannot flourish in isolation. It needs coordinated action among industry, academia and government,” he said.
Universities have often produced theoretical research with limited commercial application, while industrial enterprises have struggled with inefficiencies without making sufficient use of domestic scientific talent, Khosru said.
Competing solely on the basis of low wages is no longer a viable strategy for Bangladesh, he added, urging the country to develop a more sophisticated and innovation-driven production base.
Qingfeng Zhang, country director of the Asian Development Bank’s Bangladesh Resident Mission, said Bangladesh’s next phase of economic growth would depend on developing homegrown innovators and moving up the value chain through higher productivity, technology and quality employment.
“While technologies can be imported, local capability to identify problems, adapt technology and bring solutions to market must be built within Bangladesh,” he said.
Zhang said the BIRDI grants are aligned with the ADB’s US$300 million financing for SICIP, helping bridge industry, academia and finance to address real business challenges beyond conventional skills training.
At the ceremony, 12 research projects covering pharmaceuticals, textiles, agriculture, electric mobility, electronics and energy received grants totalling more than Tk21 crore in the programme’s first round.
Each project brings together an industry partner and a research team to develop solutions to specific industrial challenges. The projects include AI-driven fabric inspection, water-saving smart dyeing technology, vaccine-grade enzymes and solar-powered cold storage, among others.
Earlier, Additional Secretary Mohammed Walid Hossain said 123 project proposals had been submitted for innovative solutions to industrial problems, of which 12 were selected for the first round.
The selected researchers will conduct their work over one year and develop practical solutions to challenges faced by industries, he said.
Finance Division Secretary Md Khairuzzaman Mazumder attended the programme as a special guest, while Additional Secretary Mohammed Walid Hossain chaired the event. 
The grant recipients were formally recognised at the ceremony, with financial support provided to carry out their research.