Bangladesh needs to be production-led nation

Bangladesh's graduation from a Least Developed Country (LDC) status to a developing nation largely depends on attaining the strength of a production-led and skills-dependent economy.

And this capacity should be completed within the next five years in each of the export sectors.

Economists at a webinar titled "Transition to Developing Countries: Prime Minister's Great Achievement in Development Progress" made this view.

Canadian University of Bangladesh on Saturday organised the webinar.

Dr Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow of the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) mentioned that Bangladesh has five years to prepare for a smooth and sustainable graduation. At this point, the country needs to build capacity as a production dependent and skills dependent country.

He said, "We need to work extensively on getting access to markets, because when we lose duty-free, and quota-free facilities, Vietnam will get these facilities from China, Japan, Korea, and Australia."

"Earlier we took advantage unilaterally, but now if we want benefits from a country, you have to offer it benefits too," he added.

Former adviser to a caretaker government Mirza Azizul Islam suggested for increasing bilateral and regional trade agreements in such a way that the loss of duty-free facility does not affect the country's exports.

Referring to the increased cost of borrowing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank after being recognised as a developing country, he said, "We are already in ADB and the World Bank's Blended Financing. So, I do not think it will hurt us too much."

He further said, "It is difficult to anticipate an increase in foreign investment as Bangladesh's position on the Ease of Doing Business Index was not very satisfactory. The private sector should also be cautious of low interest rate foreign loans."

Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute, said, "In case of our trade, we need to think right now about how to get access to market. We do not have a preferential trade agreement with anyone. We have closed the possibility of it ourselves, because Bangladesh is the most protected market."

"We have about 27% average market protection level, which is 9% in India and China and 7.4% in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries. Then why would any other country sign a preferential trade agreement with us," said Ahsan H Mansur.

He further said, "We do not have to do business with facilities. If China can become known around the world as a manufacturing hub without any benefits, why cannot we? We have to prepare for that too."