Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) yesterday said the year 2005 ushered in both challenges and opportunities for the country.

"The challenges arising from the WTO's last ministerial meeting in Hong Kong and the opportunities created by South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) provided the trade bodies with a different institutional focus and also dimension," said MCCI President Latifur Rahman at the trade body's 101st annual general meeting (AGM).

He also said the Hong Kong meeting will cause serious challenge to the country’s export development efforts.

For Bangladesh, export growth holds the future key of its economic development, he said adding: "Backward linkage of our export-oriented industries has shown the potential of our investment scenario but the limited growth of the non-garment industries shows that the country's overall investment climate is still uncertain."

He urged the trade bodies like MCCI to readjust their focus to face the challenges emerging from the latest WTO meeting held from December 13-18 last year.

He said the impact of the global recession in 2001 and Bangladesh's increasing dependence on other countries for exports and remittances clearly show that the country is vulnerable to the economic fortunes of other countries.

He underscored the need for a strong domestic economy and improved over-all investment

environment in order to provide people with a more stable source of livelihood.

He also put emphasis on government's policy support in fiscal, monetary and administrative spheres.

Rahman said, in spite of significant improvement in the human development index (HDI), as

released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), poverty and pressure of population remain a threat to the future of the economy.

He urged the business community to work unitedly to alleviate poverty, strengthen domestic economy and boost the export growth.