Give local entrepreneurs a break

Looking into the past, Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Plant and KAFCO, two of the largest ventures in the country have failed to live up to expectation. The financial burden of these projects is still on the shoulders of the government. Many other large enterprises have shut down. I believe we have to look into these and analyze the reasons and rectify them.

The reasons are possibly common knowledge, and these issues need to be sorted out at the earliest. Without addressing and rectifying these issues we will only bring more problems to future industries in the country. A few of the areas are highlighted here :

Port administration: We urgently need to modernise and expand our cargo handling facilities. It is believed the port and shipping authorities have reserves of over 1700 crore takas. This needs to be ploughed back for the betterment of facilities. Congestion and poor efficiency is the cause behind the abnormal high freight for shipments to and from Bangladesh ports. Both the infrastructure as well as the documentation procedure need to be streamlined. The amount of formalities and the doors to be knocked in export and import documentation beggars imagination.

All these increase the time, cost and frustration in loading or clearing cargo. Meanwhile ship-handling remains suspended and the vessel incurs idle time which is reflected in increased freight. In business, time is money, and in our ports nobody bothers about time. Possibly the only way to save some transaction time in the current environment is through incentives -- of one kind or another. The volume of documentation needed in Bangladesh is possibly the highest among the SouthAsian neighbours, leave aside more developed countries.

Gas for industries: Most industries in Bangladesh need gas either as process fuel or fuel for power. For any prospective investor getting a gas connection becomes almost a nightmare experience. Over and above pressure drop has curtailed supply of gas and in number of instances shut down industries. Even today we are playing a balancing act, rationing gas to fertilizer to give it for power generation. One wonders that against such a scenario how we dare to ensure twenty years of gas supply to Tata's gas hungry proposals! The supply of gas should be on more business like footing; gas companies must confirm supply potential within fifteen working days of an entrepreneur's application, giving a clear time frame when gas will be available. Any unreasonable delay or curtailment of gas supply to the potential user should automatically invoke compensation. The understanding between the buyer and supplier should be a two-way traffic and not unfairly loaded favouring only the public gas monopoly.

Transport and communication: Although highways have developed between cities, the road facilities between industrial areas and distribution or loading point to rail or waterway leaves much to be desired. Traffic management is in a mess. Road transport management needs a thorough overhaul. May be the traffic management could be removed from our corruption prone police and privatized to improve its flow. Our waterways are archaic of 1930s vintage. Modernisation of river ports, dredging of waterways, and better cargo handling facilities are the need of the hour. The government should give top priority to improve and increase the facilities of this cost effective cargo movement potential.

Coming to air transport, it is surprising that we restrain our local airways to expand overseas flight. Meanwhile the national airline cannot be privatised as the amount of historic mismanagement and interference has made it totally unattractive for any potential investor.

Currency strength: Foreign direct investment becomes feasible in Bangladesh, if all transactions are in foreign exchange. For local prospective entrepreneurs investment made locally in foreign exchange for buying equipment and other necessities needs to be hedged against the downslide of devaluation, otherwise the repayment burden becomes impossible to bear. Investments are long-term financial transactions and stability of the currency or some form of hedging against sliding devaluation is an area of thoughtful long term action by the government. The financial burden on devalued rate of repayment is possibly the root cause of enterprises becoming sick.

Electronic media: Radio so far the best channel for communication with masses in Bangladesh has been zealously retained by the government. Often there is talk of allowing access to airwaves for private sector, but except for some instances in TV, nothing has been done about radio broadcasting. Privatisation here is moving at snail's pace.

Conclusion: Given some encouragement and institutional support, private entrepreneurship can flourish in Bangladesh, and they too can make their mark in the field of trade and industry. Maybe our authorities should wake up and make the investment playing field somewhat even so that local entrepreneurs may also feel encouraged. Given some encouragement I believe they can bring prosperity to the country. For this we need to break away from the ever-persuasive bureaucratic mind set.

Showkat Aziz Russell is a freelance wircer