Media Briefing: Global Competitiveness Report 2013-14 and Bangladesh Business Environment Study 2013

(from left) Kishore Kumer Basak, Research Assistant; Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Additional Research Director; Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director; and Dr Fahmida Khatun, Research Director, CPD.
(from left) Kishore Kumer Basak, Research Associate; Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Additional Research Director; Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director; and Dr Fahmida Khatun, Research Director, CPD.

 

Bangladesh has performed well in terms of macroeconomic stability, infrastructural development and goods market efficiency in the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2013-14, which yielded an upward move by eight positions to 110th in the global ranking among 148 countries.

In particular, public and private investment in the energy and power sector, and initiatives in monetary management have shown signs of improvement, which contributed to the escalation in the GCR.

This was revealed at a media briefing to launch the GCR 2013-14 and Bangladesh Business Environment Study 2013 at the CPD office on Monday, 9 September 2013.

Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Executive Director, CPD observed that Bangladesh needs to perform well in a number of areas including good governance, business sophistication and technological readiness and innovation to do better in future ranking.

Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Additional Research Director, CPD, shared the findings on the 13th Executive Opinion Survey (EOS) on behalf of the research team. It may be mentioned in this connection that CPD has been collaborating with the World Economic Forum (WEF) in preparing the Bangladesh component of the GCR since 2001.

Dr Moazzem noted that despite some positive changes, corruption remains one of the binding constraints that afflict performances of Bangladesh’s business sector. This nagging problem was accentuated by poor state of governance, inefficient bureaucracy and weak macroeconomic management.

The 10th Rapid Assessment Survey (RAS) carried out by the CPD indicated that entrepreneurs were apprehensive of possible fallouts of political instability and uncertainties, which might undermine Bangladesh’s competitiveness in future.

In the RAS, around 73 per cent respondents apprehended that the investment environment in Bangladesh will deteriorate further in 2013. On the other hand, 56 per cent respondents expressed optimism that withdrawal of GSP facilities will not adversely affect Bangladesh’s export performance.

The session was widely attended by print and electronic media.

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