Speakers at a programme on Thursday underscored the need for strengthening capacity of local industries, reducing business costs, and firming intra-coordination among government agencies to tackle the challenges after the country’s graduation from the Least Developed Countries (LDC) status.
They also focused on formulating a ‘Smooth Transition Strategy’ to ensure a seamless and sustainable LDC graduation for the country, good governance, compliance, ease of doing business, efficiency of workforce, and implementation of National Tariff Policy 2023.
They came up with the observation at a seminar titled, “Bangladesh Trade Policy: Evolution, Current State and Future Directions” at Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI) conference room in the capital.
Speaking as the chief guest there, State Minister for Commerce Ahasanul Islam Titu said tariff policy is important in imports and exports. So, the government tried to reflect it in the national budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
“The government is trying to increase investments in the country, but the response is not meeting the desired level. We are trying to increase regional connectivity and are currently working on Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with 26 countries to tackle the LDC challenges,” he added.
Titu said that efforts are being made to increase global trade by linking the Bay of Bengal, and in this regard, contact has been made with various countries in the last three months.  
“We want to use all our ports to leverage the global value chain, which is why we took many initiatives. Leather and jute sectors will get all facilities like the garment sector. We have to utilise our population.”
The state minister also mentioned that there is no substitute for imports to boost exports. Raw materials for the production of many of the country's products must be imported from abroad. Exports can be increased only by enhancing production.
He pointed out that the government has formulated tariff and logistics policies, and discussions are underway on how to benefit globally from these measures.
Presenting the keynote paper, Chairman of Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI), Dr Zaidi Sattar, said a big change will appear in production and technology in industries in future. So Bangladesh must take proper preparation in this regard.
He said China’s openness to foreign capital improved domestic economic efficiency by encouraging competition, educating and training the workforce and providing access to modern technology.
Also, Vietnam’s export-led growth is not based on standard comparative advantage principles driven by local resource endowment. Instead, it is driven by foreign invested enterprises, he explained.
“However, exports would expose domestic industries to international competition. Industrial protection is a nationalistic economic and trade policy to promote domestic industries,” he stated.
The economist recommended improving the environment for export diversification. Bangladesh needs to focus on overcoming the technological and innovation constraints to improve productivity, improving trade logistics in order to reduce the cost of international trade, enhancing access to low-cost trade finance for small enterprises and new exporters, and reducing cost of doing businesses.
“To boost Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Bangladesh needs to restore macroeconomic management through the prudent use of monetary, fiscal, and exchange rate policies that are essential for improving the investment climate and trade policy for greater trade openness to attract FDI,” he continued.
National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem said they are prioritising local industry to strengthen it. Now domestic industries’ owners need to increase their capacity.
“We have to increase source taxes and reduce customs support in future. We should strengthen our backward linkage and Petri chemicals industries.  Besides, we need to focus on service export by skilling the workforce,” he added.
Commerce Secretary Md Selim Uddin, BFTI Chief Executive Officer Dr Md Jafar Uddin, Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission Chairman Dr Ahmed Munirus Saleheen, and Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) CEO Ferdaus Ara Begum also spoke there.