The government should facilitate easy access to bonded warehouse licence for the other sectors like the readymade garment sector and ensure similar treatment to these sectors, experts and traders said on Monday. Although there is no bar to getting the bonded warehouse licence for non-RMG exporters, practically there are lots of constraints, they said at a session on ‘Challenges of export growth and diversification in Bangladesh: the case of bonded warehouse modernisation’ on the last day of a two-day Annual Economists’ Conference. South Asian Network on Economic Modeling in collaboration with the World Bank and the Asia Foundation organised the 5th Annual Economists’ Conference in Dhaka. At the session, Policy Research Institute chairman Zaidi Sattar said that the number of total export-products was 1,605, of which around 250 were from the apparel sector which made up for 84 per cent of the country’s total export earnings. On the other hand, around 4,500 RMG exporters have bond licences, under which exporters enjoy duty-free raw material import facility, while only a few hundred exporters from other sectors have bond licences, he said. Non-RMG sectors are unable to fully reap the benefits of the bonded warehouse facility due to various constraints as well as the country’s anti-export biased tariff policy where products manufactured for the local market receive high protection, discouraging manufacturers to go to the export market, he said. So, access to the bonded warehouse facility to the sectors should be made easy and duty-free raw material import privileges for them should be ensured for the sake of export diversification, he added. Newage Group vice-chairman and former Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Asif Ibrahim said that the bonded warehouse licence policy should be consistent for all sectors instead of being favourable to one sector. The bond facility has helped the RMG sector grow, he said. He also suggested rationalisation of the tariff structure to promote export diversification. AK Khan Telecom Ltd managing director Abul Kasem Khan, also a former president of the DCCI, said that the country should frame a bond licence policy that would prioritise products based on their comparative advantage in the export market. He also recommended the introduction of common bonded warehouse for small and medium enterprises. World Bank Group senior economist and programme manager Masrur Reaz said that the National Board of Revenue could prevent leakages in the bonded warehouse facility by automating the monitoring process. World Bank Group private sector specialist Nusrat Nahid Babi said that an effective bonded warehouse facility for non-RMG sectors could boost export through creating an scope for sourcing raw materials at low cost. NBR Dhaka Customs Bond Commissionerate additional commissioner Abu Nur Rashed Ahmed said that there was no discrimination in the bonded warehouse licensing rules for RMG and non-RMG sectors. At a separate session on reflecting the youth’s perspective on development, entrepreneurs and youth leaders urged the young generation to take entrepreneurship instead of depending on salary-based jobs. Parliament member Nahim Razzaq said that the country’s education system had to be modified in line with the market demand that had resulted in a big mismatch between the demand and supply of skilled workforce in private sectors. Public-private partnership could offer a good solution to develop the human resource skills, he said. Pathao co-founder and chief executive officer Hussain M Elius said that the young generation should change their mindset about becoming entrepreneurs as entrepreneurship initially was not about money making but rather about an initiative to solve social problems which later brought money. Future entrepreneurs should be ready to take risks, do hard work and work in teams, he said. Oggro Venture and Ferdous Biotech founder Farzeen Ferdous Alam said that the government should mechanise the agriculture sector to attract the youth to agriculture and make it sustainable. Agriculture too is now a money making industry, he said. BRAC’s preventing violence against women initiative director Nobonita Chowdhury and Asia Foundation country representative Kazi Faisal Bin Seraj, among others, spoke at the session chaired by SANEM research director Sayema Haque Bidisha.
