& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Capacity building efforts elude business bodies

Commerce minister says at BCI seminar

STAR BUSINESS REPORT
Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury yesterday lashed out at chambers and trade associations for their lack of capacity building efforts in running modern day business.
Trade bodies cannot live up to their spirit of supporting the business community as their leaders prefer to hold the posts to take privileges rather than make efforts to give institutional shape to their business bodies, he said.
Excepting a few, none of the trade bodies has built required capacity to handle challenges of the globalised era, the commerce minister said, adding that business leaders spare a little time for institutionalising the bodies they represent.
The minister was speaking at a seminar on "SMEs: A Potential Sector for Economic Development of Bangladesh" organised by Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI) held at its conference room in Dhaka.
Expressing his frustration over the activities of chambers, Khosru said they do not carry out research for bettering industry. Their suggestive inputs to ministries are not satisfactory, indepth and far reaching, as they do not conduct sector-wise research, he added.
"If the trade bodies are sincere and active in their jobs, they can be able to solve themselves 80 per cent of their problems," the minister felt.
Emphasising the role of private sector, especially the trade bodies, in policy formulation for trade facilitation, he said the government has decided to place 25 per cent private sector professionals in Export Promotion Bureau and Tariff Commission.
The prime minister has already approved the proposal and the recruitment process will be completed in three months, Khosru said.
He opined that the combination of dynamism of private sector people and administrative skills of civil servants would best serve the country's needs to boost trade.
The commerce minister said the private sector professionals will be recruited on contractual basis and there will be a special pay scale for them.
He said the government is loosening its grip in business to encourage private sector in becoming key player. "But as the performance of trade bodies is not noteworthy it seems that private sector business leaders are not yet ready to take over as major player in business."
On promoting small and medium enter-
prises (SMEs), Khosru said Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) must be restructured by hiring private sector stakeholders to increase government support in SME development.
Advisor to the commerce ministry Barkatullah Bulu said politicisation of BSCIC has made it an inactive body. Some politicians had abused power to set up BSCIC estate in their constituencies without considering economic viability, he said.
Addressing the seminar, BCI President AK Azad said as the BSCIC has so far failed to promote SMEs, it must be restructured or a separate SME Development Authority may be formed with private sector participation.
He demanded collateral free loan facilities for the SMEs and called for setting up a separate lending institution for such industries.
Dr M Kamal Uddin, director of Institute of Appropriate Technology of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, presented a paper at the seminar in which he recommended offering ten years' tax holiday for export-oriented SMEs.