Promote labour intensive sectors to cut poverty
Discussion on PRSP suggests
Star Business Report
Speakers at a discussion yesterday called for promoting labour intensive sectors like poultry, food processing, tea, ship-breaking, jute and textile to help reduce poverty. They suggested lowering interest rates on bank loans to 7 percent to give a boost to the country's private sector-led economic growth. The discussants also called for reducing corporate income tax for backward linkage industries to 10 percent from existing 20 percent. The suggestions came from economists, academics, public and private sector officials and NGO activists at the discussion on Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The General Economics Division of the Planning Commission, assigned body for preparing the PRSP, organised the discussion at the NEC auditorium in Dhaka. Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman inaugurated the meeting. Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Kamaluddin Siddiqui, also convenor of the steering committee to advise Planning Commission in preparing the PRSP, and Kazi Mesbahuddin Ahmed, member of the commission, also spoke at the inaugural ceremony. The discussion covered 13 areas, which include macro economics, private sector development, infrastructure, good governance, health, education, women and children, rural development, agriculture, environment, water management, tribal and underprivileged people and housing. The discussants stressed the need for creating a contingency fund for small ready made garment units to face post-MFA (multi-fibre arrangement) challenges. Suggestions also came up to reduce utility charges, such as gas and electricity, by 50 percent for textile and export-oriented garment industries. The speakers sought withdrawal of import duties and taxes from textile dyes, chemicals and sizing materials to increase competitiveness of the industry. Speedier goods handling and simplification of administrative procedures in ports are needed for reduction of lead-time of export, they added. They suggested enhancing the capacity of revenue administration and accelerating reforms according to recommendations of the Revenue Reforms Commission. The discussants also called for constituting a regulatory body to monitor the activities of micro-credit providers. They suggested massive privatisation in telephone sector and drastic cut in phoneset prices and tariff rates of cell phones.
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