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Next economic driver: manufacturing

CPD-Katalyst study focus on local industries

Star Business Report
The government must design a comprehensive trade policy to make the local industries competitive both in the domestic and international markets by enhancing their productivity and ensuring efficiency, according to a study.
The local industries will also have to ensure good governance in their practices, the study said.
The government should also develop the manufacturing sector as the country's economic activities are shifting focus to non-agricultural sector, it said.
The study - - Developing a Framework for the Comprehensive Trade Policy of Bangladesh --was conducted by private think tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and market development initiative Katalyst.
The trade policy will be for five years with legal binding in terms of enforceability of all its clauses and will be considered as legal documents through appropriate act, the study said.
The trade policy will accommodate both the current import and export policies and those policies will have legal bindings.
Currently, the government's import policy is a legally binding document, while the export policy is not.
The commerce ministry has already
finalised the three-year Import Policy Order for 2012-15 after the tenure of the last policy ended on June 30. The import policy order is now waiting for the government's approval.
"Diversification of export markets is to be encouraged through applying new marketing techniques, e-commerce and other modern IT-based tools,” said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, senior research fellow at the CPD.
Moazzem was presenting a key-
note on "Bangladesh's trade policy framework for the next decade" at a dialogue co-organised by the CPD and Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) at Lakeshore Hotel in Dhaka yesterday.
In the proposed trade policy, the government should prioritise trade in services through strengthening domestic policies and the trade facilitation measures by improving physical and institutional capacities.
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The government should increase its skills in trade diplomacy with some non-traditional countries such as Japan, Turkey, Brazil, Russia, China and India.
Former ministers, bureaucrats, academicians, researchers, businessmen and scholars from home and abroad participated in the dialogue.
Former adviser to the caretaker government Syed Manzur Elahi moderated the discussion.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, a distinguished fellow of the CPD, said the trade policy should focus on developing the manufacturing sector as the economy is graduating to the non-farm sector.
"The political acceptance of new types of stimulus, which was given to support the export growth during the global financial crisis, is now increasing as those proved worthwhile,” Bhattacharya said.
The growth of domestic industries was hampered due to the liberalisation of the tariff structure in early 1990, he said, adding that the government should strengthen other related factors in the proposed policy.
However, he said the big challenge the policy may face is its implementation.
He also suggested inclusion of industrial labour relations, the concept of green economy, and gender and environmental issues in the proposed trade policy.
While speaking as a special guest at the discussion, Osman Farruk, adviser to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, said the trade-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio should be raised to 64 percent from the current 57 percent to reduce poverty significantly.
"The entire tariff related affairs should be brought under an efficient tariff commission,” he said.
Former finance minister M Syeduzzaman called for a neutral trade policy between export and import to protect the local industries.
He said the contribution of the services sector to export is low. Anis Ud Dowla, former president of the MCCI, said geo-political situation should also be considered in the trade policy.
”We have a huge export potential in the South Asian region and in China," he said.