Private sector's involvement sought to achieve SDGs

Business leaders here on Sunday said private sector's involvement and policy reforms are important to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by Bangladesh.

"Private sector will need to be engaged in realizing the SDGs as it was estimated that private investment to GDP needs to be scaled up to 40 percent or US$ 400 billion by 2030 to meet the SDGs," DCCI President Abul Kasem Khan told a program.

Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) and the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) jointly organized the Impact Bangladesh Forum 2017 at a city hotel. State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan, MP, FBCCI president Md Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, CPD fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Senior Economist and Program Manager of World Bank Group Dr Masrur Reaz, deputy country director of UNDP Bangladesh Kyoko Yokosuka and executive chairman of Policy Research Institute (PRI) Ahsan H Mansur, among others, spoke at the event.

Speaking as the chief guest, State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan said industrial development is very important for the country's overall economic progress. "Our private sector is the key driving force of our economy and our economy is private sector led economy…business policy reform will be done with the consultation of private sector and concerned stakeholders," he said.

Noting that the government is working hard to keep doing business easy, the junior minster said earlier Bangladesh successfully achieved the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and its strong commitment will be to achieve the SDGs.

Mohiuddin said the key challenges for Bangladesh in achieving SDGs are having access to finance and employment generation, and alleviating poverty and improving energy efficiency.

He said a major challenge relating to SDGs in Bangladesh is to put in place effective measures to mobilize resources, capitalize new financing sources, and channel more resources to development activities from private and business sectors.

Abul Kasem Khan said some key challenges in attaining SDGs are reliable energy sources, inadequate technology, climate change impacts, lack of infrastructure, high cost of doing business, weak regulatory framework and lack of institutional capacity.

Dr Debapriya said Bangladesh needs to have an internal institutional framework where the private sector stakeholders will be able to share advocacy with the policymakers of the government to finalize the policies for economic development of the country and there can be a monitoring committee who could look after the implementation of the decisions made by the government.