Govt thinking to provide sector-based support

Zarif Mahmud
The violence surrounding the quota reform movement and the financial loss caused by the curfew to suppress it has been asked to be precisely assessed and presented to the government. Sector wise policy assistance is being contemplated according to the type of financial loss.
These issues were discussed in the high-level meeting of the government with businessmen of various sectors. Prime Minister’s Adviser on Private Industry and Investment Salman F Rahman presided over the meeting held at Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) building in Agargaon of the capital. State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid, State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam Titu, State Minister for ICT Junaid Ahmed Palak and FBCCI President Mahbubul Alam including business representatives from various sectors were present. In the two-and-a-half-hour long meeting, the businessmen cited financial loss due to the violence and curfew. Besides, they have urged the government to pay attention to restoring the image of Bangladesh in the outside world in the case of quota reform movement. At the end of the meeting, Salman F. Rahman told the journalists that the businessmen mentioned 5 problems in the meeting.
First: Container jamming and port-shipping demurrage. A meeting will be held with the forwarding agent, shipping agent, C&F agent, customs, NBR and Ministry of Shipping to solve this problem.
Second: NBR-centric problem. A meeting will be held with NBR to resolve them.
Third: A meeting will be held with the Bangladesh Bank and the Ministry of Finance regarding additional time and rescheduling of loan installments. In that meeting, a decision will be taken on the interest waiver of bank loans.
Fourth: Internet from 3 o’clock on Sunday is being started on mobile phones, broadband is also started. The meeting came up with good suggestions on how to deal with such problems in the future.
Fifth: A meeting will be held with the Ministry of Electricity and Energy to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity and gas. He also said that the situation is gradually becoming normal. So, the curfew is being relaxed gradually. The government is working to start the metro rail as soon as possible. The Prime Minister spoke to the Japanese ambassador on Saturday to bring the technician as soon as possible.
Salman F. Rahman said, FBCCI has been asked to report the amount of damage in various sectors in writing. I will discuss later after receiving it. In fact, most of the damage has been done in Dhaka and surrounding areas. Outside Dhaka, the damage is less in other districts. In response to a question, he said, who will believe in the world or not, that is their business. The image problem caused in the outside world by spreading rumors and lies on social media, needs to be repaired. When the situation is normal, everything will be fixed automatically.
FBCCI President Mahbubul Alam told journalists that every sector, including BGMEA, BKME, has been discussed to assess the amount of damage. BGMEA said, they have suffered a loss of Tk 6,400 crore. BKMEA also reported their losses. By Sunday will get full account of all sectors. Will try to send it to the Cabinet meeting yesterday. If not, I will try to give it in 1-2 days. Exact calculations are in progress. Then government assistance will be sought. He further said that till now no such information has been received from BGMEA and BKMEA that any foreign buyer has canceled the order. I think it’s a rumour. So far there have been no problems with the supply chain. Manual work has been done everywhere including Chittagong port.
Meanwhile, according to FBCCI sources, FBCCI has sent a letter to all the chambers and associations that participated in the meeting to inform them of the amount of financial loss in any sector. Requested to reply to the letter at the earliest. The full account will be presented to the government if the account is received.
Urge to restore the image: Sources of the meeting said that most of the business leaders who participated in the meeting urged the government to focus on restoring the image of Bangladesh in the outside world due to the quota reform movement. At the same time, he advised to increase confidence among the young population. If not, they think that talent trafficking from Bangladesh will increase.
A business leader of the ICT sector present at the meeting said, when we tell foreign buyers that the data center has been burnt, so the internet was down in Bangladesh for 7 days, no one believes it. They say, your network is so weak. Then they lose trust in us. This business leader said, if you say this, international businessmen will not come to us for services in the future. They will say, your country is like that, then why should I do business with you. Rather, if we say that there was an emergency in the country and the net was closed, they don’t mind it.
He also said that governments and businesses need to consistently convey a specific message about the Internet to restore its global image. Now we are sending messages like any other. If we say, data center is burnt, server is down – no one believes us. It seems childish these days to talk about the data center being burnt down because of the internet shutdown.
Another business leader said, along with working to restore the global image, the youth within the country should be brought into confidence. Already many talented people are going abroad for work (brain drain). If the youth are diverted now, how will we get workers in the industry in the future. How to build a smart Bangladesh. He also said that a wing of the government has to work to restore the image that has been damaged abroad. If necessary, foreigners should be briefed regularly.
Calling for manual vehicle registration, a business leader involved in the import of vehicles said that the head office of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has now been abandoned and unusable due to a fire set by miscreants. The daily services of BRTA including vehicle fitness, driving license, registration are not being provided due to server damage here. It cannot be confirmed when it will be launched. He suggested manual registration of vehicles if BRTA’s servers are not working.