A leading chamber yesterday expressed concern over the bleak investment scenario.
The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) said there are some signs of improvement, but the actual increase in investment would depend on how effectively the government addresses the power and energy crises.
"The acceleration of growth would depend upon the success in raising investment, especially in the private sector," said the MCCI in its review on economic situation for April-June 2010 (Q4 of FY10).
The chamber said raising public investment through improved implementation of annual development programme and success in rapidly institutionalising the public-private partnership efforts in the infrastructure sector will be important to crowd-in private investment.
It stressed quick and innovative actions in economic management to improve implementation capacity, raise the level of economic activity, and make progress towards realising the social goals, including the poverty reduction targets.
The government should keep inflationary pressure under control through judicious coordination of fiscal and monetary policies, said the MCCI.
The recovery from the slow growth in the previous quarters enabled the economy to achieve a 6 percent growth during fiscal 2010, surpassing the 5.74 percent growth in the previous fiscal year.
Exports recovered from a negative growth in the second and third quarters, recording a 2.4 percent growth in the eleven months of the fiscal year till May 2010.
The review also said revenue collection, inflows of remittances and growth in industrial and services sectors also rose in the April-June period, compared to the previous quarter.
The chamber said the supportive conditions in the Bangladesh Bank's latest monetary policy were intended to facilitate the recovery of exports and attract new investments.
Crop production is expected to exceed the fiscal 2008-09 output, although it may fall short of the FY10 target, said the chamber.
The target for food grains production for FY10 was set at 35.05 million tonnes, 9 percent higher than the actual total production.
Source: thedailystar.net
