Former Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman on Sunday said that the government should continue cash incentives for export and remittance sectors until macroeconomic stability was established in the country.
The government should not discontinue the support to the export sector and remittance earners any more, rather incentives should be increased for the sectors to ensure smooth graduation of Bangladesh from the least developed country to a developing one, the economist said at a luncheon meeting organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh held at Sheraton Hotel in the capital Dhaka.聽聽
鈥楳any of my fellow economists are too complacent about Bangladesh鈥檚 success in terms of remittance and export earnings and they advocate for withdrawing government support and stimulus to these sectors, but I disagree with this approach,鈥� Atiur said.
In the event, Atiur presented a keynote paper titled 鈥楶ost LDC Graduation: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Way Forward鈥� that said Bangladesh would face stringent Rules of Origin upon graduation and pharmaceutical sector would need to comply with Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights obligations.
After the LDC graduation, merchandise exports would lose preferential market access and it might cause 7-14 per cent of baseline export reduction, it said.
Atiur recommended stabilising the exchange rate and containing inflation, promoting export diversification and strengthening remittance inflow.
He emphasised the importance of enhancing financial sector governance and bolstering overall business confidence.
The economist advised ensuring consistency in the capital market and prioritising human capital development through stronger private sector participation in collaboration with academia and other training providers.
In a panel discussion and launching of a research finding on 鈥楧evelopment of Labour Conditions in Bangladesh for Sustainable Growth,鈥� programme manager of ILO Labour Administration and Working Conditions Cluster Neeran Ramjuthan said that labour rights space would be important for Bangladesh after the LDC graduation.
Bangladesh is approaching a stage where many economic and trade agreements will need to be renegotiated and reassessed. Increasingly, these agreements globally are contingent upon commitments to labour rights and human rights, he said.
鈥榃e are hopeful and optimistic that the government of Bangladesh will increasingly align the Bangladesh Labour Act with international labour standards,鈥� Ramjuthan said.
Regarding minimum wage setting process for Bangladeshi workers, he said that very few out of 44 sectorial minimum wage boards remained active and five years was a lengthy period for consideration for looking and reviewing wages.
鈥榃e find that there are a couple of wage boards that have not had wage discussions for several years,鈥� the ILO official said.
Ramjuthan claimed that many enterprises and factories were yet to start complying with the minimum wage in the RMG sector.
John Fay, commercial counsellor of the US Embassy in Dhaka, said that the labour rights issue directly intersected with Bangladesh and US trade and investment relationship.
The issue was also related to whether or not GSP benefits would be re-established and Development Finance Corporation financing would be re-authorised for Bangladesh, he said.
Fay said that the labour issue was not just sort of a US-Bangladesh dialogue, but it was a global dialogue right now on improving labour rights.
Leena Khan, labour attach茅 of the US Embassy in Dhaka, said that labour rights would continue to become more central to the US-Bangladesh trade and investment relationship.
鈥榃e now have a 11 point US labour action plan and the United States developed this labour action plan partly in response to the government of Bangladesh鈥檚 request on how to get access to GSP and Development Finance Corporation in the future,鈥� she said.
Leena said that GSP programme remained halted and hopefully the US Congress would re-authorise the programme.
Once that programme is re-authorised, Bangladesh would have to reapply since those benefits were withdrawn in 2013, she mentioned.
Independent University professor Mamun Habib presented a research paper on labour issue that suggested revising wage adjustment policies, clarifying the definition of labour and establishing effective dispute resolution mechanisms.
Labour ministry additional secretary Md Humayun Kabir and AmCham president Syed Ershad Ahmed, among others, spoke at the event.
