Nat'l committee on exports sits idle
No meet in 18 months, although quota-free era begins next year
Monjur Mahmud
The national committee on exports is sitting idle as it has failed to hold any meeting in the last one and a half years, although Bangladesh is to face stiff competition in the global market with the phasing out of quota from next year.The last meeting of the committee was held in April 2003. The 11th meeting was scheduled to be held on 11 April this year and was rescheduled to April 22. But finally it was postponed. The 36-member national committee with prime minister as the chairperson takes important decisions on exports. Other committee members include representatives from the associations, which have substantial contribution to the national export earnings. "Inefficiency in ports and lead-time problem, the two crucial issues for the readymade garment industry in the quota-free era, are supposed to feature in the next meeting. But we don't know when the meeting will be held," said an aggrieved business leader, who is also on the committee. Establishing a cluster village for the development of light engineering sector, allowing foreign direct investment in the readymade garment sector outside export processing zones and forming a high-powered committee to facilitate frozen food sector to earn Tk 10,000 crore a year by 2008 were on the agenda of the April meeting. Giving cash incentive to backward linkage industries for readymade garments for another five years and supplying electricity, gas at subsidised rates to make export-oriented industries more competitive were also on the agenda. The national committee on export was formed in 1993 and held ten meetings until now.
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