Daily Times

Veteran leader of the trading community Jahangir Akhtar has supported the statement of a minister proposing to follow Bangladesh’s model to ensure rapid economic development.

Ensuring development like Bangladesh is difficult but it is not impossible for which cooperation of the business community is central, he said. Talking to reporters in his hunger strike camps, Jahangir Akhtar said that the growth rate of Bangladesh is 8.13 percent, its currency is stable and their stock exchange capitalization is three times larger than that of Pakistan. Bangladesh’s exports are almost double to Pakistan, Its GDP is 300 billion dollars which will jump to $700 billion in eleven years while Pakistan’s GDP is shrinking to $280 billion, he added. He noted that Pakistan per capita income will decline by $300 dollar in three years while Bangladesh’s per capita income will grow by 300 dollars in the next three years.

The veteran business leader said that the assistance of the business community is imperative for national development and breaking the begging bowl. The government should discourage cronyism in all the government and semi-government departments and ensure merit-based decision in the chambers of commerce and trade associations to improve the situation.

The respected and honest officials should be given important slots in the business chambers for which free and fair elections are essential. Transparency can be ensured if a system is introduced in which all the taxpaying businessmen automatically become members of their respective chamber. The business community is smart and patriot and they can change the fate of the country they are given a chance to prove themselves, he said.