Green financing should be available at more affordable interest rate for adopting environmental technology at industries, entrepreneurs said at a seminar in Dhaka on Sunday. They termed the existing financing scheme of the Bangladesh Bank too costly. At the seminar on ‘Promoting green industrial policy for Bangladesh: opportunities and challenges,’ the entrepreneurs said financing at lower interest rate would encourage businesses to make their factories more environment friendly which would ultimately lead the country’s economic growth towards a sustainable one. They also emphasised on implementing land zoning plan for organised and green industrial development in the country. Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, The Asia Foundation, and Centre on Budget and Policy of the University of Dhaka jointly organised the seminar at MCCI auditorium in Dhaka. ‘Achieving green growth will not be viable with the efforts only by the factory owners as it involves significant additional cost,’ said MCCI president Syed Nasim Manzur. Bangladesh Bank’s green financing scheme with 9 per cent interest will also not work unless the rate is lowered, he said. It will also not be possible for a businessman to preserve sludge discharge site due to scarcity of land and its cost, Manzur said. So, industrial land zoning has to be done which will facilitate green industrial development in the country, he added. Entrepreneurs need the government’s support in this regard, Manzur said. Finance minister AMA Muhith also admitted that the role of the government was very important in providing public services like effluent treatment plant and organised sludge discharge system to make the industrialisation environment pollution free. He requested the businesses to pay more tax for getting such services from the government so that it (the government) could spend more in providing such services due to scarcity in revenue. Increasing revenue is also necessary for getting subsidised fund at 6-per cent to 7-per cent interest rate for setting up green factories which also emit less carbon, Muhith said. The government is setting central ETP and sludge discharge system at Saver for tannery industry, he said. A group of 40 to 50 factories can also establish ETP jointly with the green financing fund, the finance minister said. He also emphasised on industrial land zoning for environmentally-sound industrial development. ‘Land zoning is very much important in the land scarce country. But we cannot do it,’ Muhith said. The finance minister also favoured for fixing a target of keeping the population size within 20 crore for the next 50 years to keep the environment manageable. Envoy Group chairman Kutubuddin Ahmed shared his experiences of making Envoy Textile as an environment-friendly unit which achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum Certification from US Green Building Council. Initially it could take huge investment to make a factory environment-friendly but eventually the effort becomes economical as it saves energy, environment and increase efficiency in production, he said. ACI Limited chairman and also former president of the MCCI M Anis Ud Dowla said Bangladesh should have zero discharge policy for effluent and industrialists could jointly establish ETP to make the production process greener. Funding for ETP should be affordable and subsidised, he said. Centre on Budget and Policy director M Abu Eusuf and Centre for Policy Dialogue research director Fahmida Khatun presented two separate keynote papers on case studies on greening readymade garment sector and strategy for green industrial policy in Bangladesh respectively. Industries ministry senior secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies executive director Atiq Rahman, Rahimafrooz Renewable Energy Limited managing director Munawar Misbah Moin, Bay Footwear Limited managing director Ziaur Rahman, Mutual Trust Bank deputy managing director Zakir Hussain, Bangladesh Bank general manager Manoj Kumar Biswas and Asia Foundation country representative Hasan Mazumdar, among others, spoke at the seminar.
