We need focal-point of an organisation, not a post office-like Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), to be able to achieve export-led economic growth. All the more so because we have taken on an increased work load in the field of export today. Lately we have minced no words to tell any visiting dignitaries from countries we have had huge trade deficits with that they must buy more from us to balance the books of business.

The EPB has a long list of functions to perform without the necessary organisational strength to do so. When it was set up in 1978 through an ordinance — and ordinances mostly mean adhocism — in the wake of a flawed nationalisation era. private sector was still on the sideline of the economy. So. the EPB could be content with doing promotional work for basically another part of the government — the public sector corporations. It is altogether a changed scenario today with privatisation and free market policies forming the rock-bed of the economy. And it so happens that the industries distnvested by the government need all the export guidance it can get. these still teetering on the edge.

Besides, the markets that were orite slammed shut overseas have now adopted open-door policies. both in terms of investment and trade, with the result that fierce competition is raging the world over to seize the new opportunities. We have held trade fairs in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and South Africa but to make a dent there or elsewhere in the African continent and Latin America, we have to have a string of sales and display centres. EPB's annual quota of 20-25 fairs can at best have a seasonal impact that is bound to dim without trade offices to sustain the initial gains.

Even in its semi-autonomous capacity, as an adjunct of the Commerce Ministry. EPB has done some good work in consultation with the private sector leaders, something that must be an institutional feature now. For instance, after helping in the maturation of the garments export, it has taken up the cause of talking the entrepreneurs out of hides and skins into finished leather that can add so much value tq the export.

So, we are all for the full autonomy of EPB with a guarantee that it has the necessary technical manpower and financial resources to play its due role in broadening our still very narrow export base. The merely promotional status of EPB and the fact that it is not a direct earner of foreign exchange do not undermine the enormous influence it can wield as a promoter of new products in the light of market intelligence gathered by it. EPB can also play a highly useful recommendatory. even a corrective, role insofar as the quality, pricing and timely delivery of our goods go. The body is Just about warming, up in its national export training programme which has to be taken forward by miles more.

Congestion at our ports is a big snag. What a pity it is that we have at the moment garments worth Tk 300 crore lying in the stack-yard of our national airport. Now the dichotomy in our situation is. whereas we cannot even export what we produce, how are we to cope with a higher productivity that we must have if we are to reduce the trade gaps with so many countries?