The government should increase its engagement with the country’s private sector in making policies and decisions amid ongoing reforms, according to prominent business leaders, who cited major challenges such as high inflation, rising interest rates and slowing demand and investment that are now plaguing private businesses.

It is necessary for keeping the wheels of growth running and attracting foreign investment in the new Bangladesh.

Business associations have been subjected to an endless game of masquerade where garlands, pictures and faces changed with the direction of the political wind.

It currently takes 27 months, on average, before "the first dollar goes out the door," Ajay Banga said in an interview in his brightly lit office in the Bank's headquarters close to the White House.

The private sector’s external debt declined by about $2 billion in the first three months of the year, in a sign of the shrinking appetite for foreign loans in the face of unfavourable terms.

The private sector’s foreign debt decreased by 4.3 per cent, or more than $1 billion, in the second quarter of the current fiscal year following Bangladesh Bank’s strict measures to control imports.

Private companies are spearheading Bangladesh’s growth with their energy and optimism, putting the economy on a path to cross the $1-trillion mark by 2040, according to a top global consulting firm. 

Specific policy incentives are needed to stimulate the economy and revive the labour market.

Businesses and bankers often blame political instability for sliding private sector credit growth. But it was calm as the smoothest waters on the political front last year after the polls on December 30, 2018 and yet the slide did not stop.

The government is going to exceed its annual limit for bank borrowing within the first half of this fiscal year due to poor revenue collection, and this could give a credit crunch for the private sector to deal with.

Private sector credit growth continues its forward thrust despite liquidity crisis and rising interest rates as businesses jump into an

Finance Minister AMA Muhith says the government plans to introduce pension scheme for the private sector by the end of its tenure in 2019.

The government is considering to implement an integrated government-run pension framework for self-employed and employees of private organisations.