The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

FBCCI administrator Syed Manzur Elahi yesterday said that the country requires a pragmatic competition policy to support the growth of domestic industries and keep the market consumer-friendly.

Formulation of a competition policy and the laws, being not an easy task, would require proper understanding of the core issues, enough thinking and enough home work, he said speaking at a seminar at the FBCCI conference hall.

Bangladesh, he said, could develop some of its manufacturing taking advantage of the WTO rules exempting the LDCs, for a certain period, from compliance of existing competition requirements in some of the areas.

The country needs to think what it would do and how it will promote such industries after 2013 or 2016, when the exemption period would end.

For achieving higher growth, he said, there was no alternative to developing domestic manufacturing.

The industry leaders, he said, should thoroughly familiarise themselves with the competition policy and the WTO rules, which would govern their activities in near future.

"It is time we must start creating awareness about it," he said.

Dr Taufiq Ali, former Bangladesh Permanent Representative to UN at Geneva, in his keynote paper spoke on competition policies adopted by developed and the developing countries to suit free trade under WTO multilateralism.

Fazlur Rahman, Director General, WTO Cell in the Commerce Ministry in his expert paper highlighted the Bangladesh perspective, what it should mean, elements covered by it and how to move about it.

Representatives of various chamber bodies and trade associations exchanged views on different issues.