Editorial
Give primacy to the economy
Call made by businessmen to political parties
AT a general meeting of the International Business Forum held in Dhaka on Saturday, speakers urged the political parties to place economy at the top of their agenda. In effect, they are calling upon the politicians to refrain from activities that disrupt the economy meaning the routine recourse the opposition takes to impose hartal as the prime mode of getting their political demands met.
Shutdowns have a way of not only bringing violence to the streets but also affecting industrial productivity, disrupting supply chain and telling upon export trade -- all very adversely.
Let's not forget that nourishment to the economy comes from earnings from external sources, principally through export trade. Our competitors in overseas markets would shy away when they see road blocks to their business caused by hartal. It is important to note that already some orders for garments export have been cancelled or scaled down because of successive hartals. We risk losing buyers and investors to countries in the neighbourhood such as Myanmar, Vietnam or Cambodia if we persist in the political standoff.
Actually, several foreign businessmen have cancelled their planned trips to Bangladesh seeing the onslaught of hartals and the attending unbelievable damages inflicted on the economy. It has also come light that one big electronic company keen on investing in the export processing zone has put off its scheduled visit to our country.
These are signals that political parties who have the best interest of the country on their mind should ponder and be heedful about. In fact, the destructive swipe of politics that we have experienced lately is unprecedented in our political history since Bangladesh's independence.
The economy is teetering at the edge of a deeper crisis. It cannot withstand any more strains through hartal and resulting increase in violence. Before long, the major political parties should see the wisdom of coming to terms with each other and thereby stop punishing the people and hurting the economy.
We would, therefore, endorse the business community's call for a dialogue between the contending forces aiming to lead the country out of the tunnel into the sunlight of hope and prospects spurred on by their taking the path of discussion to reach a common ground on the interim government issue, the bone of contention between the two sides.
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