Commodity exchange will open up new investment opportunities through ensuring distribution, quality of products and fair pricing, said Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Chairman Asif Ibrahim.
The commodity exchange is a legal entity responsible for establishing and enforcing rules and procedures for trading standardised commodity contracts and investment products.
Asif Ibrahim said, “This will create new investment opportunities. Many will come here to invest.”

He made the remarks while attending a discussion on television recently. CSE Managing Director Shaifur Rahman Mazumdar also took part in the discussion.
The CSE chief said that commodity exchange is the oldest concept of trading compared to traditional trading at the stock exchanges. “Commodity exchanges were well advanced in the Western world, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.”

He said, “Commodity exchange is well established in the United States and other large developed economies and in European countries. In our region, China and India first started the journey. They are gradually getting very good implications in their economies.”
The CSE chairman added that the commodity exchange is “essentially the show for a commodity through futures and spots on a structured platform.”
“Through this, there will be a guarantee to sell the futures products. Most importantly, it will have a price discovery mechanism. Product quality can be ensured through this ecosystem,” he said.
Asif Ibrahim mentioned that the commodity exchange will connect marginalised communities, importers, exporters, and banks into a single platform to fetch more investment.

“Under the initiative, a national-level price discovery mechanism will be created for each product. We can see a big lack of that. I think commodity exchange can give some relief to the violence of middlemen in our economy,” he pointed out. In the discussion, CSE MD Shaifur Rahman Mazumdar said that the stock exchange provides an electronic marketplace supported by transfer regulatory structure.
“As the equity market regulatory needs, we will rearrange the regulatory framework wherever required from the regulatory perspective when we bring in commodities and work is underway towards that end,” he said.
Mazumdar further said, “The market is working with the goal of launching the commodity exchange within a certain period.”
CSE recently received a licence to launch the country's maiden commodity exchange on a special occasion for potential investors at home and abroad, opening up a new avenue of economy to curb trade-based money laundering.
ABG Limited, a concern of Bashundhara Group, has been supporting the new concept of commodity exchange as a strategic partner of the CSE to help the economy flourish.