Long-term loans are vital to boost industrialisation: analysts at BCI event

Banks should extend long-term loans to the entrepreneurs for the sake of industrialisation, as it is not possible to build an industry with short-term loans, analysts say at a webinar today.

Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI) organised the event on "Bangabandhu's Philosophy on Industrialisation: Today's Bangladesh".

They also said the lenders give entrepreneurs 5-7 years to repay loans while they give as long as 25 years in case of housing loans.

There are very few countries in the world, which have done well in agriculture and industry together, said Binayak Sen, director general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.

"Bangladesh is one of them. This is a significant thing. It has to be maintained."

"Bangabandhu always thought about the marginalised people of the society. He worked for them," said MA Mannan, planning minister.

Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury, president of BCI, presided over the event where Md Jashim Uddin, president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry; Rizwan Rahman, president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Zakia Sultana, industries secretary; Selima Ahmad, president of Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Nazneen Ahmed, country economist of UNDP Bangladesh, also spoke.