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BD to face multiple challenges after graduation to developing country

Says eminent personalities

Published : Friday, 26 November, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 579

The government will have to face many challenges including trade, generalized system of preferences (GSP), export and capacity building after the resolution on graduation of Bangladesh from the Least Developed Country (LDC) category.
Eminent personalities of the country said this on Thursday adding that the government should take advance preparation to face the upcoming challenges.
They made the observations while talking to the Daily Observer in exclusive interviews on Thursday.  
Meanwhile, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted the resolution on graduation of Bangladesh from the LDC category.
With the adoption of this resolution at the 40th plenary meeting of 76th UN General Assembly, Bangladesh has completed all the procedures to graduate from the LDC category.
Besides Bangladesh, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Nepal are
graduating from the least developed country category.
Saleh Uddin Ahmed, former governor of the Bangladesh Bank said, "The country has to improve competitiveness and that requires increasing manufacturing capacity by adopting new technologies.
If competitiveness grows production cost will be lower to stay competitive in global market. Moreover, the country should enter free trade or preferential trade agreement with big economies or regional trade blocks such as ASEAN to share their common market.
The point is that Bangladesh would have to lower tariff on import but it would enjoy similar lower tariff in case of export.
We should also harness more FDI to expand the manufacturing to take the country's economic base at a higher level.     
Former caretaker government adviser Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam said Bangladesh will be upgraded from the list of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to the list of developing countries in 2024. But as a result, Bangladesh will be deprived of some benefits in world trade. In that case, the country's export sector will be a big shock. At the same time, the capacity needed to deal with this problem within the country is not yet sufficient.
He said, "After becoming a developing country, we have many challenges. Especially in the European Union, we have to try for GSP. We will also have to try to get low interest loans from foreign companies."
He said there should be diversification in the field of export. In that case, our export policy could be negotiable.
Dr Abdul Mazid former governor of the National Board of revenue (NBR) said several countries have already graduated to from LDC. As a result, they have faced many challenges.
But the challenge of Bangladesh is different from them as population of those countries is much less than Bangladesh, he said.
Therefore, necessary preparations are needed to face the challenge. In this case, the assistance of the WTO is inevitable.
Former President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Rubana Haq said some unexpected trade situation has arisen in the world at present.
The ready-made garment sector is not yet fully prepared to deal with this. The process of transition from LDC has started. But if it leaves LDC, Bangladesh will lose GSP facility for export.
"As a result, we need to do our homework well in advance to face the challenges," she said.








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