Dhaka: Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin today expressed hope that interest rates would reduce substantially early next year. “The current economic adjustment is providing the necessary firepower to the central bank to address this issue,” he said. The adviser made these remarks while speaking as the chief guest at the launching ceremony of the 4th edition of “Bangladesh Business Climate Index (BBX-4) 2024-2025” at MCCI in the city.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka (MCCI) and Policy Exchange Bangladesh (PEB) jointly prepared the BBX. Bashir called upon the private sector to take collective responsibility and engage productively. He urged businesses to come forward with three specific, actionable proposals: voluntary compliance, supervisory structures, and regulatory changes. He concluded by challenging the private sector to point out any corruption within the ministries he oversees, promising to address such issues personally.
MCCI President Kamran T Rahman emphasized the need for structural transformation to sustain long-term competitiveness, especially as the nation approaches Least Developed Country (LDC) graduation. He stated that for Bangladesh to position itself as a credible, future-ready economy, the country requires continued progress in areas such as financial inclusion, digitalization, infrastructure, skills development, and regulatory simplification.
At the presentation, Chairman and CEO of Policy Exchange Bangladesh M Masrur Reaz noted that the business climate in Bangladesh showed signs of slight stabilization during the last fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25). The BBX score reached 59.69 for 2024-25, up from 58.75 in the previous fiscal year 2023-24. He mentioned that this slight rebound suggests some stabilization, particularly in supporting macro foundations, linked to incremental policy measures and adjustments made at the firm level.
The event was also attended by Trade and Investment Commissioner of the Australian High Commission to Bangladesh Ben Carson as the guest of honour. Other speakers included President of the Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI) Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury (Parvez), Managing Director of Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited Rupali Chowdhury, and JETRO Country Representative Kazuiki Kataoka.
The BBX is based on 11 pillars, including starting a business, access to land, availability of regulatory information, infrastructure, labour regulation, dispute resolution, trade facilitation, paying taxes, technology adoption, access to finance, and environmental regulations and standards. According to the report, the highest-performing pillars for 2024-25 were infrastructure and labour regulation, indicating relatively strong support systems for businesses, with infrastructure remaining the highest-performing pillar overall.
Signs of improvement were observed in several specific pillar areas. Notably, access to finance rebounded from the previous year, reflecting a slight recovery in financial support available to enterprises. Other pillars showing improvement include starting a business, access to land, dispute resolution, and paying taxes. Despite being high performers, scores for both infrastructure and labour regulation saw a decline compared to the previous year. Declines were also observed for several other crucial pillars, including availability of regulatory information, trade facilitation, technology adoption, and environmental regulations and standards. Among the analysed metrics, Environmental Regulations and Standards were listed among the lowest scoring pillars.