External factors, not mismanagement, behind economic challenges: Salman F Rahman
To protect the economy from the ongoing pressure, the most needed thing is investment – both domestic and foreign, he said.
Bangladesh's economy faces multi-pronged challenges not because of mismanagement on the part of the authorities, but because of global factors, said Salman F Rahman, private industry and investment adviser to the prime minister.
"The country's economy is now facing many challenges. It is not our fault; these challenges are not due to our mismanagement. This challenge is due to the international situation," he said at a programme in the capital today.
"We tackled Covid efficiently. But after the Russia-Ukraine war outbreak, our problems started," he said at the opening of the One Stop Service (OSS) implementation progress review meeting at the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority's (Bida) headquarters.
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The adviser said the problem is that the Federal Reserve raised interest rates. This immediately led to an appreciation of the dollar, which put pressure on Bangladesh's reserves.
"Prices of commodities, fertilisers, and fuel increased. The prices of the three things we import have gone up a lot. The pressure on our economy also increased," he added.
He said that to protect the economy from the ongoing pressure, the most needed thing is investment – both domestic and foreign. And if Bida's OSS can be implemented, it will support the increase of domestic and foreign investment.
Salman F Rahman said, "We have received complaints that even after going online, people have to go physically. Physical paper has to be taken. All these issues will be discussed today. Let's see how fast we can bring in the rest of the services."
After his speech, Bida Executive Member Mohsina Yasmin presented a report on the implementation and progress of OSS. But at this time, journalists were requested to leave the venue. After that, the meeting lasted for about two and a half hours.
After the meeting, Bida sent out a press release saying that it has so far signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with 48 organisations, of which 101 services of 41 organisations have been added to the OSS. Including Bida's own 23 services, a total of 124 services are being provided through OSS.
According to the circular, Mohammad Salahuddin, secretary to the Prime Minister's Office, said, "Investment is very important given the current challenges that we are facing. We have to remove all the obstacles in order to increase domestic and foreign investment, and everyone has to work together for this purpose."
Bida Executive Chairman Lokman Hossain Miah, who presided over the meeting, said, "Vietnam provides investment-related services in 29 days and Indonesia in 48 days.
"Currently, we are providing 124 services through Bida OSS. We hope to add all investment services to the OSS in the next 2-3 months. Then it will be possible to provide investment services more quickly; all investment services can be provided within a month," he added.
