DHAKA, July 23, 2020 (BSS) – Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said
today that the economy of the country would rebound at the beginning
of the next calendar year overcoming the impacts of coronavirus
pandemic.
“The pandemic has wreaked havoc on the economy of Bangladesh like
other countries of the world. It has put serious impact on various
sectors including on export. I hope the Corona crisis will come to an
end at the end of this year while the country’s economy will rebound
at the beginning of next year,” he said.
The Commerce Minister was addressing the Economic Reporters’ Forum
(ERF) Workshop Series on COVID-19 and Bangladesh Economy titled
“COVID-19″ and International Trade Issues: Policy Option for Promoting
Bangladesh’s Exports”.
ERF organized the workshop with the assistance of Research and
Policy Integration for Development (RAPID) and the Asia Foundation.
Moderated by ERF General Secretary SM Rashidul Islam, Chairman of
RAPID and Director of Policy Research Institute (PRI) Dr Mohammad
Abdur Razzaque made the key-note presentation.
DCCI President Shams Mahmud and BUILD Chairman Abul Kashem Khan
spoke as the guests of Honour. The Asia Foundation Country
Representative Kazi Faisal Bin Seraj and Dhaka University Professor Dr
M Abu Eusuf also spoke on the occasion.
The commerce minister said coronavirus has created crisis at one
hand, on the other hand, it has also created immense possibilities.
“Many countries now want to reduce dependency on import from China
while many countries are also thinking to invest in other countries
after withdrawing their investment from China…….the US-China trade
war has also created immense potentials for us. We’ll have to take
steps fast to tap these potentials, otherwise we won’t be able to do
it,”
The government, Tipu said, is acting fast realizing its importance
adding that work is going on to sign Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with
12 more countries in the coming days to boost export earnings.
In this regard, he informed that FTA is likely to be signed with
Bhutan within a month while the process has advanced a lot for signing
FTA with Indonesia and some other countries.
Mentioning that the government has set an export target of $48
billion for the next fiscal year (FY21), Tipu expressed his high
optimism of attaining that target.
He said new possibilities are there on the export of leather and
leather goods, jute, light engineering and IT alongside the main
exportable item RMG. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to get rid of this
pandemic at the end of this year and also will be able to expedite our
progress with united efforts,” he added.
RAPID Chairman Dr Abdur Razzaque said big-scale change can take
place in the global trade system due to the coronavirus. “Many
countries can take conservative approach on import. Besides, the
movement of people and tourism can be in a limited scale for long
during the post COVID-19 period,”
He also called for taking various initiatives to maintain the export growth.