Business Summit to accelerate trillion dollar journey: FBCCI

Ministers from around a dozen countries and a number of CEOs from global companies are expected to attend the Bangladesh Business Summit-2023, to be held on 11-13 March in the capital, the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) announced on Saturday.

The three-day summit will be organised to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the FBCCI, said Jashim Uddin, president of the organisation, at a press conference on the day.

"In 2008, we had a $90 billion economy, which has reached $470 billion today. We are going to organise the event to accelerate the country's trillion- dollar journey," he said.

"Three plenary sessions, 13 parallel sessions, open discussions etc will be organised with traders, investors, analysts and policymakers to find out the country's trade and investment opportunities, obstacles and ways to overcome," said the FBCCI president.

FBCCI Source said the Trade Minister of Indonesia, Commerce Minister of Saudi Arabia, Commerce Minister of India, Industry Minister of Bhutan, Commerce Minister of China, State Minister of the UK and Under Secretary of the Commerce Ministry of UAE have confirmed to participate in the summit.

CEOs of global companies including Chevron, Intel, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, and Google have been invited to participate at the summit. However, most of them have not confirmed their participation yet.

FBCCI leaders said more than 200 investors and 50 companies are expected to attend the summit.

The largest team participating in the event will be the Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro), which is set to bring a team of 70-80 members to conduct a full session at the summit.

Jashim Uddin said at the press briefing, "Bangladesh is heading forward to become a trillion-dollar GDP. That's why our slogan for this event is 'Trillion Dollar Economy'."

"For this, we have to emphasise the domestic market rather than exports," he said.

The business leader also said, "We should be more focused on import substitutes rather than exports. It will save foreign currency and the country will quickly move towards a trillion-dollar GDP."

Besides the summit, the FBCCI will also give awards to successful entrepreneurs and businessmen in the country for the first time on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.

FBCCI president said both programmes will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
He said that the Best of Bangladesh Expo will also be organised to present booming sectors including textiles, agro-processed food, leather, ceramics, and jute etc of the country to foreign investors.

Regarding foreign investment, he said, long-term investment is needed in our country. Besides, all the multinational companies that have invested here are doing good business as there is a big consumer market in the country.

Responding to a question on how foreign investment will come amid the ongoing electricity-gas and dollar crisis, Jashim Uddin said, "These problems will not continue. We have to work on the future."

On raising interest rates to control inflation, he said it is uncertain if inflation will decrease if interest rates are adjusted. Because the current inflation is the result of the supply disruption and price hikes in the global market.

"A decrease in raw material prices in the global market could help reduce inflation. One potential solution is adjusting current tax rates for imported raw materials with higher prices," he said.

"To achieve a trillion-dollar GDP, investments must be increased. In this situation, it will not be right to increase the interest rate," he said.