Published in The Daily Star on Sunday, 1 April 2018
Poor governance hurts financial sector: analysts
Star Business Report
The failure of governance in the financial sector is increasingly becoming a threat for sustaining the growth at the time of Bangladesh’s graduation from the least developed country’s category, analysts said yesterday.
The existing financial crisis can take a toll on the country’s economy, Abul Hasan Chowdhury, former state minister for foreign affairs, said while addressing a discussion on “Bangladesh’s development trend: financial priority”.
Ghashful, a nongovernmental organisation, organised the discussion at The Daily Star Centre in Dhaka.
Corruption in one or two banks has caused sufferings for the entire country, Chowdhury said.
The defaulters behave in such a way that the money they took belongs to their father-in-laws and returning it would be a matter of disrespect to them, he said.
Managing the crisis of the financial sector is now the number one challenge for the government, he said.
Inequality, lack of quality education system and poor governance are the main challenges for the government to help the economy grow in the existing pace, said Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue.
Infrastructure development is the prime need for the country but the sector failed to achieve its expected progress due to corruption, he said,
If the government fails to establish good governance in infrastructure investment, the country will fall in a debt burden, Rahman said.
The wage of garment workers does not match the tremendous growth Bangladesh has achieved to come out of the least developed country’s category, he said.
With the country’s development, the jobless rate will increase and the government should address the issue by expanding economic activities, he suggested.
The weak base of the financial sector will hamper the growth of the real estate sector, said Nazneen Ahmed, senior research fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.
She said political stability is a must to keep the economy growing without a break.
The government should be very cautious in the election year otherwise foreign businesses will be discouraged to come with new investments, she said.
The government should make Bangladesh Investment Development Authority functional to bring more private investment, said Raihan M Chowdhury, senior news consultant of The Financial Express.