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circumstances,” Akberali said.

The industrialist lauded the government for taking various mega projects, calling it brave.

“But from now onward, it needs to consider the payback period before initiating any mega project as well as during their implementation. Otherwise, we may fall into the debt trap.”

Akberali says Bangladesh would have done better if it could take some steps long ago by gradually freeing up the interest rate as well as making the exchange rate flexible.

Regarding the slowdown faced by the economy in 2023, he said, “I think we were overconfident that our exporters would save us. Now, we are facing too much shortage of foreign exchanges.”

“If reforms were put in place three to four years ago by slowly devaluating the currency and increasing the interest rate in phases, we might not face the current situation all of a sudden.”

According to the BSRM chief, Bangladesh has huge potential and there is no reason for the country to look back.

“The only thing is that there has been no serious reform in the banking sector in the last three or four years against willful defaulters. The lack of strong steps to rein in willful defaulters led to the serious liquidity crisis.”

Akberali thinks the new government can’t slow down reforms, infrastructure development and digitalisation.

“Digitalisation in many spheres is urgent. Government organisations are aware of digitalising things and they are trying but the implementation is very slow.”

He said the Awami League has been in power for 15 years but the land ownership document is yet to be digitalised.