BNP to strengthen business bodies to cut red tape, boost economy: Khosru

BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury on Monday said their party would work to further strengthen Bangladesh’s business organisations to overcome bureaucratic complexities and revitalise the economy.

“From my experience as a former commerce minister, I learned that empowering business bodies helps the economy rebound faster,” Amir Khosru said, citing his decision to delegate an export-oriented certification function of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) to the garment sector body BGMEA.

The outcome proved that a strong private sector accelerates economic recovery, he added.

Khosru made the remarks while speaking at a programme titled ‘Memorial and Doa Mehfil for Late Begum Khaleda Zia’, organised by the International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh (ICC Bangladesh) with 18 business organisations at a city hotel.

Amir Khosru described former prime minister Khaleda Zia as the ‘mother of Bangladesh’s democracy’, saying she had passed on the torch of multi-party democracy—originally introduced by late President Ziaur Rahman—to her son and BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman, whom he termed the current torchbearer of democracy in the country.

Stressing that economic progress is impossible without democracy, he said BNP has always believed in the ‘democratisation of the economy’.

After assuming office for the second time in 2001, BNP raised GDP growth above seven percent. Had the economy been managed properly afterwards, Bangladesh’s GDP growth could have reached double digits today, the BNP leader said.

Khosru mentioned that privatisation and the free-market economy were initiated under BNP leadership, adding that Khaleda Zia governed the country following a multilateral economic model.

 “BNP brought the country out of dependence on a single market or a single product,” he said, reaffirming the party’s commitment to an open and liberal economic framework.

Referring to bureaucratic resistance, the BNP leader said Khaleda Zia was determined to dismantle administrative barriers. “Bureaucrats never wanted business bodies to be empowered. Without Khaleda Zia’s full support, it would not have been possible for me to strengthen BGMEA despite bureaucratic opposition.”

He said BNP had been preparing a post–Sheikh Hasina economic model for more than a decade, noting that Khaleda Zia’s Vision 2030 and Tarique Rahman’s 31-point agenda outline the future economic model and reform roadmap for Bangladesh.

 “All major economic reforms in the country were initiated by the BNP. We never politicised institutions like Bangladesh Bank or the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission. That is why there was no major banking or capital market scandal during BNP’s tenure,” he claimed.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Standing Committee Member Abdul Moyeen Khan were also present at the programme.

The event, organised by 18 business bodies, included doa and munajat, seeking eternal peace for the departed soul of Khaleda Zia.