Say Bangladesh economy really vulnerable to external shocks
Staff Correspondent
Economists and trade experts on Saturday called for formation of a task force, as pledged by the government, soon to effectively to ward off the impact of the ongoing global meltdown on Bangladesh economy.
Exports, foreign direct investment and remittances are the areas that may be hit by the global financial turmoil within this year unless prudent policy measures are taken on various fronts, they told a seminar.
The Policy Research Initiative, headed by Professor Mahbub Ullah of Dhaka University, organised the seminar on ‘Global Economic Crisis: Lessons for Bangladesh’ at the National Press Club.
‘If both our exporters and importers are affected, the banks will eventually be affected. We may have to see a turnaround in the international price situation in a year after a significant decline,’ said Asaduzzaman, a research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, underlining the need for the task force in this regard.
Professor Muzaffer Ahmad, chairman of the Transparency International, Bangladesh, stressed improving the credit rating system of banks so that the banking sector could avert the fallouts of the crisis.
‘We have not thought much about the efficacy and viability of institutions that we have built in the Western model,’ he said, insisting that there should be political solutions to economic crisis.
Economist Abu Ahmed criticised the central bank for pursuing a monetary policy that does not guarantee flow of credit to the private sector.
He advocated use of share market for mobilising resources required for long-term investments.
Khandker Mustahidur Rahman, a former vice-chancellor of Jahangirnagar University, suggested slashing down the size of the annual development programme by dropping unnecessary projects and divert the money to provide assistance to export sector, if necessary.
‘Already difficult, the world economic crisis will make participation of foreign investors much more difficult and more expensive,’ said Kabir Hassan, a professor of University of Orleans, USA, in his keynote on the implications of recession for Bangladesh.
He also suggested that the government should immediately lobby hard to expand overseas job market to ensure flow of remittances.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
