Jute can foster green growth: analysts

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Jute can foster green growth: analysts

Star Business Report

Jute pulp has the potential to be a growth driver for the economy and can enable Bangladesh to make strides towards becoming a green economy, said analysts yesterday.

“Jute pulp is a potential game-changing growth agenda. Jute offers the potential to be an environmentally sound, rapidly scalable, and poverty reducing new growth driver,” said Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC).

The optimism was shared at a session on jute organised by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre marking its 60th anniversary.

“Because of climate change-induced environmental concerns, jute has become an attractive business proposition,” said Rahman, adding that a lot of people are involved in the sector, which offers the opportunity of 100 percent value addition.

“It supports green economy,” said the economist.

Rahman, also a former adviser to the last caretaker government, said jute pulp and pulp factories were rapidly scalable. He said products that were rapidly scalable have significant backward and forward linkages.

The production of jute pulp is potentially a low threshold technology that can enable setting up of small factories in rural areas, he said, adding that stakeholders, including jute traders, large farmers and local entrepreneurs, would respond if appropriate policies were framed.

Jute pulp is also an environmentally sound product, he added.

The views come at a time when jute production is rising. Exports are also growing, with raw jute and jute yarn constituting 79 percent of the total exports value of $1 billion fetched by the sector in the fiscal year of 2017-18.

However, non-traditional items account for only 9 percent of the total export earnings.

Rahman said the focus has to be on items that were rapidly scalable while have multiple backward and forward linkages.

“This is where the strategic nature of jute pulp comes into play. Jute has a massive domestic market. If we need another war against polythene, jute paper bag can be the one,” he said.

However, he said, the new potential of jute appears to remain hostage to legacy burden, namely the unsustainable fiscal burden of loss making public sector jute mills.

“Why should we be funneling money into the loss-making public mills? This has to be addressed,” said Rahman, suggesting policy dialogues between the finance and jute ministries to tap the potential of jute and the issue of fiscal burden for loss-making public mills.

He recommended framing a jute paper law in line with the mandatory jute packaging law and devising a policy package.

Showing a biodegradable “Sonali” polybag made of jute polymer, Mubarak Ahmad Khan, scientific adviser of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, said it was now being produced under a pre-piloting scheme at a state mill.

The government has taken an initiative to commercialise the bag, he said.

Shaila Khan, assistant country director and adviser of Business Development and Partnerships of the United Nations Development Programme, Bangladesh, said adequate investment had not been made to realise the potential of jute.

“We need to champion our own products,” said Khan, adding that jute had the potential from the perspective of attaining Sustainable Development Goal-12.

“Jute can ensure green growth,” she said.

Paul Bundick, chief of party, Agricultural Value Chains Project, USAID, suggested changing the business model of the mills. The mills can buy the whole crop and use the sticks to make activated charcoal, he said.

Nihad Kabir, president of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, chaired the event while Rina Parveen, additional secretary to the textiles and jute ministry, also spoke.

Raise investment-GDP ratio to improve economic status

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Raise investment-GDP ratio to improve economic status

Top banker says at DCCI conference
Star Business Report

Bangladesh needs to accelerate its investment to gross domestic product ratio to achieve the status of an advanced economy by 2041, said a senior banker of Standard Chartered yesterday.

“Currently the investment to GDP ratio in Bangladesh is hovering around 30 percent. Definitely, it needs to be increased and it is possible to increase,” said Abrar A Anwar, CEO and managing director of Standard Chartered Malaysia.

He spoke while presenting a keynote paper at a discussion on “Gateway to growth and investment” at an international conference at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka, organised by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

When Malaysia got the Asean economic tiger status in the middle of 1990 and 2000 its investment to GDP ratio was more than 35 percent to 45 percent, although it has come down to 25 percent, Anwar said. Similarly, Vietnam’s investment-to-GDP ratio stands at 35-37 percent and Indonesia’s 35 percent.

“Bangladesh’s economy has been one of the most consistent in the world delivering 6 percent plus GDP growth for more than a decade,” said Anwar. 

The economy has been stable and resilient in the wake of global geo-political incidents and economic crisis, Anwar said.

Unfortunately, the story of Bangladesh’s economic success is not very much known in the outside world, he said, adding that Bangladesh has the ability to grow faster with larger investment and quick execution of economic strategies.

Achieving the status of an advanced economy by 2041 is possible but Bangladesh’s GDP size will have to be $1.7 trillion and per capita income should be over $12,000.

To achieve the target on time, the country will need an investment of $320 billion to develop infrastructures, the banker said.

Anwar said loans are available and the country’s GDP versus debt is only 15 percent. Provident and gratuity funds can be used to attract investment, he said.

Bangladesh also needs a massive investment in

power, energy, technology-enabled services,

healthcare, telecoms, transportation, logistics, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and light engineering sectors, he said.

“Bangladesh can gain competitive advantage by developing human resources.”

The country needs 9 percent GDP growth per year and $16,000 in per capita income to become an advanced economy by 2041, said Prof Shamsul Alam, a member of the General Economics Division of the Planning Commission.

Bangladesh needs to spend $8 billion for infrastructure development in a year, but it can spend only $2.5 billion now, said Alam, adding that foreign direct investment is required for infrastructure development.

Economic governance is needed and the country needs to sign free trade agreements and improve regional cooperation, he said.

Alam said project costs climb by 2 percent to 2.5 percent from the original costs because of non-execution of infrastructure projects on time.

Currently, 269 Japanese companies have operations in Bangladesh, mainly in the form of buying house and garment factories, said Taiki Koga, representative of the Japan External Trade Organisation in Dhaka.

He said many Japanese are working in the construction of new airport in Bangladesh and the Matarbari power plant. The Japanese government has provided $6 billion to the country to implement a number of projects.

The number of Japanese people working in different projects in Bangladesh fell sharply after the death of some Japanese businessmen and officials in the Holey Artisan attack in Dhaka in 2016.

Koga said Japanese people have started working in Bangladesh in full swing now.

The government should improve the quality of service at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and ease visa system for foreigners to allow more people to travel to Bangladesh, said Syed Nasim Manzur, managing director of Apex Footwear Ltd.

He called for stop harassing foreign investors when they seek arrival visas after reaching Bangladeshi airports as such attitude portrays a bad image of the country.

Currently 20 local pharmaceutical companies invest $700 million a year in the sector in Bangladesh, said Abdul Muktadir, chairman and managing director of Incepta Pharmaceuticals.

“The companies will be able to invest $10 billion in the next 10 years to grab more international markets.”

In Bangladesh, private and public universities are producing adequate numbers of skilled workforce to run the pharmaceuticals sector, he said, adding that the country is now more advanced in biological medicines compared to many other countries.

Of the total exports from Bangladesh, more than 90 percent are merchandises whereas the percentage in other least developed countries are 15 to 20 percent, said Masrur Reaz, senior economist at the International Finance Corporation.

So, Bangladesh has the potential to grow more in the export market worldwide, he said.

He recommended for a massive investment in infrastructure development for sustaining the economic growth.

No neighbouring country should be allowed to use the Chittagong port, Mahbubur Rahman, president of International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh, said while moderating the discussion.

He said the capacity of the premier port of the country should be doubled. An expressway is needed between Dhaka and Chittagong as the four lanes can hardly carry the load now.  Vehicular movement on the roads should be more scientific, he said.

Euro zone growth slows more than expected

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Euro zone growth slows more than expected

Reuters, Brussels

The European statistics office Eurostat said economic growth in the 19 countries sharing the euro slowed to 0.2 percent in the third quarter against the previous three months, after a 0.4 percent expansion in the second quarter.

Year-on-year euro zone growth slowed to 1.7 percent from 2.2 percent in the second quarter. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 0.4 percent quarterly expansion and a 1.8 percent year-on-year rise.

Eurostat does not provide national data in its flash estimates, but figures released earlier on Tuesday by the Italian statistics agency showed Italy’s growth had halted in the third quarter amid a row with the European Union over the country’s budget for next year.

In a separate release, the European Commission said on Tuesday economic sentiment dropped in the euro zone for the tenth consecutive month, and by more than expected by economists. The indicator, that shows managers and consumers’ morale, fell to 109.8 points in October from 110.9 in September in its biggest dip since March.

Although it remains above the long-term average, the indicator has been falling since the beginning of the year after having risen steadily in 2017.

In October the largest fall was recorded in retail services as managers held “much grimmer views on the present and expected business situation,” the Commission said and the indicator of selling price expectations dropped.

Confidence in industry and services also went down, while consumer sentiment grew slightly on improved savings expectations.

Among euro zone countries, economic morale fell in Germany, France and Italy, the three largest economies of the bloc, while it grew in Spain.

In Italy the downward trend, which is coupled with economic stagnation in the third quarter, began in July, the month after a eurosceptic government took office in Rome.

Yuan hits decade low on trade, economy fears

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Yuan hits decade low on trade, economy fears

Afp, Shanghai

The Chinese yuan weakened to a decade low on Tuesday on concerns over China’s slowing economy and the US trade war, but Beijing was expected to prevent it breaking the psychologically important 7 yuan per dollar barrier.

The yuan drifted past 6.96 to the dollar, hitting its weakest levels since May 2008.

Breaking 7 could further undermine market confidence and potentially trigger fresh US accusations that China was allowing the yuan to weaken to blunt the impact of tariffs that Washington has imposed on Chinese goods.

A weaker yuan makes Chinese exports less expensive overseas, ameliorating some of the higher costs brought by the tariffs.

China restricts the yuan’s daily trading band, and a front-page commentary on Tuesday in the state-run Economy Information Daily said authorities were unlikely to let it hit 7 to the dollar.

“China’s balance of payments situation won’t change in the short term. Current monetary officials have the strength and determination to stabilise the market. There also are enough policy tools to deal with changes in the situation,” it said.

Washington has imposed tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods as President Donald Trump tries to pressure Beijing to change trade policies that he says are unfair to US companies.

The yuan is likely to remain weak as long as the trade row persists, Ben Kwong, executive director at KGI Asia, told Bloomberg News.

“Chinese officials have already indicated they don’t want the yuan to break through 7 this year. The yuan may fall very close to 7 but maybe not beyond that,” he said.

Washington recently declined to officially label China a currency manipulator — a designation that would have further escalated the trade fight — but expressed concern over the yuan’s weakness and Beijing’s foreign exchange policies.

Cut economic disparity to achieve SDGs by 2030

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Cut economic disparity to achieve SDGs by 2030

Experts suggest at PKSF’s conference

Star Business Report

The government should take steps to reduce economic disparity to achieve sustainable development goals by 2030, experts said yesterday.

Sustainable development aims at reducing economic disparity, said Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, chairman of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF).

Corruption is the main barrier for the country’s economic development and the government will be able to achieve more growth only if corruption is cut, said Abdul Mannan, chairman of University Grants Commission.

Corruption is interrupting the development and widening the disparity, Ahmed said.

They spoke at a two-day international conference on “Pathways to a sustainable economy: Vision 2041 Agenda for Bangladesh” organised by the PKSF at its conference room in Dhaka.

Abdul Karim, managing director of the PKSF, gave a presentation on the economic progress of the country.

The growth of the country’s gross domestic product was 4 percent in 1990, which improved to 7.86 percent in 2018, Karim said.

At present, 12 percent people live below the poverty line in the United States while for Bangladesh it is 22 percent, he said.

The earnings of Bangladeshis have improved significantly but the development achieved is not balanced, he said.

He suggested that the government cut regional economic disparity to achieve sustainable development.

Bangladesh should give more focus on clean energy and develop micro entrepreneurship to make the development sustainable, said Moazzem Hossain, professor of Griffith University in Australia.

Hossain, who is also the convenor of the conference, stressed the need for women empowerment to accelerate the economic development.

Three sessions were held on the first day of the conference where three papers were presented by local and international experts.

BGMEA chief’s company gets IGW licence

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BGMEA chief’s company gets IGW licence

 

Muhammad Zahidul Islam

 

The government is set to award one more licence for the international voice call routing — a mindboggling move given the sector is already overcrowded and struggling.

The new licence was given to LR Telecom, a company owned by the president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and his family.

Since 2013, the sector has been controlled by a cartel of International Gateway (IGW) operators.

Amidst the backdrop, two months ago, BGMEA President Siddiqur Rahman, chairman of LR Telecom Limited, suddenly applied to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission for a licence.

This prompted the telecom regulator to open the procedure for licensing.

 

The BTRC, the licence awarding authority for telecom-related services, on September 19 invited applications for awarding IGW licence without mentioning the number of licences it would award.

Following the BTRC’s invitation, 14 companies, including LR Telecom, applied for IGW licence and the telecom regulator chose only one company and made the recommendation to the posts, telecommunication and information communication ministry, said official of the regulator.

Rahman yesterday said he has no idea whether he got the licence or not but he has grand plans for this industry.

His son will run the business as he is the managing director of LR Telecom. Rahman’s wife is also a director of the company while the fourth director is a family member too, said a top official of the BTRC.

The licence would be awarded upon fulfilment of licensing conditions by LR Telecom, he said.

The IGW business started in 2008 after an open auction. Only three private companies got the licence, with one being the government-owned Bangladesh Telecommunication Company Limited.

Then in 2010, the Awami League-led government, during the first of its two consecutive terms, issued 25 IGW licences, mostly for party-men, ignoring a BTRC assessment that informed that the sector could hardly accommodate four more entities.

The telecom regulator still issued the new licences following pressure from the politically-affiliated businesses.

Currently, there are 25 active licences running the IGW business. Four licences have already been cancelled for improperly sharing revenues, which is a violation of the rules.

Six companies, which have about Tk 1,000 crore in dues pertaining to licence fees and revenue share of the telecom regulator, have gone traceless after transferring the shares to unidentified persons.

Rahman said he is well aware of the industry and will try to match with the process.

After the increase in licence numbers, the operators pressurised the government to reduce its revenue-sharing portion to 40 percent from 51.75 percent for viability of their business.

Later, the operators created a cartel and increased the incoming international call routing rate to 2 cents per minute. However, they continued sharing revenue with the government at the previous rate of 1.5 cents per minute.

Currently, calls of about 4.5 crore minutes in duration are coming into the country every day. It was about 11 crore minutes on average every day in September 2014.

Despite the fall in the volume of international calls, the government in February this year increased the international call termination rate to 2.5 cents from 2 cents while the operators were asked to share revenue with the government at 1.75 cents per minute.

Pacific Jeans investing $100m to diversify products

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Pacific Jeans investing $100m to diversify products

Sajjadur Rahman and Dwaipayan Barua

Top denim maker Pacific Jeans is spending $100 million to set up two new factories in Chattogram in two years with the view to diversifying product base.

One of the units, Pacific Knitex, will produce fabrics, while the other, Pacific Casuals, will make activewear, which would help the company broaden its product offerings from denim.

“Active wear is not a traditional garment product. Rather, it is a specialised product that Bangladesh is yet to explore,” said Syed M Tanvir, a director of Pacific Jeans, which exported denim products worth $400 million in fiscal 2017-18.

He hopes a good business prospect in this segment after seeing the progressive shift towards an active and healthy lifestyle globally.

North America dominates the global activewear industry thanks to its endless appetite for the athleisure trend.

Athleisure is a trend in fashion in which clothing designed for workouts and other athletic activities is worn in other settings such as at the workplace, schools or other casual or social occasions.

The European activewear market is also growing exponentially due to high popularity of sporting events, which led to increased participation and high demand for replica team jerseys and outerwear.

Asia-Pacific, which lags behind the US and Europe in use of activewear, is also expected to witness significant growth from 2018 to 2024 due to an increase in awareness of health and wellness and a rise in participation of youth population in sports activities, said Allied Market Research, a US-based research and advisory company.

Improvement in living standards and the rise in disposable income are expected to boost the growth of activewear market in the years to come, it added.

Vietnam has done well in activewear, which is made out of man-made fibre, according to Tanvir. “But that’s because of Vietnam’s duty benefits in the US market.”

Tanvir, who joined Pacific Jeans after completing his postgraduation degree in international marketing in 2004, has made the company the country’s leading denim exporter in the last one decade.

Pacific Jeans, founded by his father M Nasir Uddin in a small scale in the Chattogram Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) in 1994, exports premium denim products. The price ranges from $50 to $180 a piece.

It employs 26,000 people in its five factories located in the CEPZ. The new facilities will create another 5,000 jobs.

The young entrepreneur sees a bright prospect for export of apparel products from Bangladesh, which according to him, is now the safest sourcing hub globally with skilled manpower.

“Bangladesh has set the standard, no matter how big or small a factory is,” said Tanvir, who works 11 to 12 hours a day.

But, there is no scope for complacency as Vietnam is going neck-to-neck with Bangladesh in the list of global apparel exporters.

“We have a good chance to boost our exports if we can utilise our opportunities,” he said.

Bangladesh has done fairly well in many economic indicators but the next 10 years will be crucial.

“We need the right infrastructure, energy and economic zones,” Tanvir added.

Early bitcoin investors count winnings after volatile decade

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Early bitcoin investors count winnings after volatile decade

 

Reuters, New York/London

SEVEN years ago, Marshall Hayner gave his grandfather one bitcoin, worth about $30. On the paper wallet he fashioned to commemorate the gift, the U.S. entrepreneur and software developer wrote: “Do not open until $100,000.”

It made Hayner’s grandparents laugh, and indeed bitcoin has not come anywhere near that level. But it is worth more than 200 times what it was in 2011 when Hayner made the gift.

Investors who took a chance on the fledgling currency and stuck with it have been on a rollercoaster ride – but are optimistic that they are still onto a winner.

“I have seen these run-ups and drops in bitcoin and I did not even flinch,” said 34-year old Hayner, who started mining bitcoins in 2009 when the granddaddy of all cryptocurrencies was worth nothing. He also founded payments company Metal Pay.

“I believe in this technology. I really believe that bitcoin is the next digital gold,” he said in an interview this week.

Bitcoin on Wednesday celebrates ten years since Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin’s mysterious founder, released a whitepaper outlining the need for an internet currency that could be used as payment without going through a third party like a bank. One bitcoin is now worth around $6,200. That is a steep 70 percent fall from its all-time high of near $20,000 in December last year, hurt by a more intense regulatory scrutiny around the world, as well as the rise of cryptocurrency crime including hacking, but a substantial boost for any early investors who bet on it.

“If the price goes down, I am happy because I was able to sell some,” said Israeli entrepreneur Daniel Peled, who has bought since late 2013 and believes another record peak is a few years away. “And if it goes up, I am happy too because I am still holding some.”

Peled’s optimism is partly based on his waiting for bitcoin’s next “halving,” which has constrained its supply and has caused its spike as demand increased.

Bitcoin relies on so-called “mining” computers that validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles every 10 minutes. In return, the first to solve the puzzle and clear the transaction is rewarded new bitcoins.

Bitcoin technology was designed in such a way that it cut the reward for miners in half every four years, a move that was meant to keep a lid on inflation.

The next halving is scheduled in 2020 and the following year should be a good year for bitcoin, Peled said. The same optimism has prompted London-based investor Nicholas Gregory to keep his bitcoins, which he bought heavily in early 2014.

Distrustful of exchanges, Gregory, currently chief executive of blockchain firm CommerceBlock, made his first purchase through a website that matched him to a man selling bitcoins on a memory stick in a New York cafe.

Since then, he has not sold any bitcoins, citing the potential of the digital currency to safely store value and transfer money across the internet.

Some investors, however, have become disillusioned, arguing that bitcoin has been held back and not reached its expected potential by taking off in the real world.

Vaughn Blake, a Los Angeles-based portfolio manager at private equity firm Echo Tree Capital, liquidated his cryptocurrency quantitative fund in January this year when bitcoin was at $13,000. He started investing in bitcoin in 2013 when it was around $120 but said he has been a victim of hacks and phishing attempts.

Bitcoin’s technology has also not always been an efficient means of processing payments. It can be slow, sometimes incurring higher fees than regular transactions, market participants said.

London-based entrepreneur Jez San, CEO of blockchain firm Funfair Technologies, started buying bitcoin in 2013, at around $50, but sold most of it well before the peak in December 2017.

He invested in Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency that runs on another public blockchain network, instead.

“We all expected people would be buying coffees with it and they would use it instead of PayPal,” said San. “Bitcoin is way too hard to use – it’s so user unfriendly that the man in the street just can’t use it.”

Deal signed for Ctg elevated expressway

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Deal signed for Ctg elevated expressway

Star Business Desk

Max-Ranken Joint Venture on Tuesday signed a contract with Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) to construct a four-lane elevated expressway from Lalkhan Bazar to Hazrat Shah Amanat International Airport in Chattogram.

The project, including a 16-kilometre flyover and a 12-kilometre ramp, is scheduled to be complete in four years with government finance. The venture was the lowest bidder in an international tender, says a statement yesterday.

Abdus Salam, CDA chairman; Mohammed Mahafuzur Rahman, the project director, and Ghulam Mohammed Alomgir, chairman of Max Group, attended the signing at the CDA office in the port city.

“Very recentlywe have successfully completed the construction works of Chowdhury Akhtaruzzaman Flyover in Chattogram. The same way, we will complete this elevated expressway project in the stipulated time by introducing state-of-the-art technologies and equipment,” said Alomgir.

Time to be more innovative in fashion, design

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Time to be more innovative in fashion, design

Say apparel exporters, buyers
Star Business Report

After a journey of four decades of business, the time has come for Bangladesh to be more innovative in fashion and design for sustainability of garment business in the era of fierce competition in global apparel business, exporters and buyers said yesterday.

Also, Bangladesh’s garment manufacturers need to try to change the brand image of the country and the image of the garment sector, as a brighter image of the country and the sector helps get better prices for apparel items, said KM Rezaul Hasanat, chairman and CEO of Viyellatex Group, a leading exporter.

Bangladesh also needs to improve the negotiation and marketing skills so that manufacturers can grab more of the market share while receiving higher prices from retailers and brands, he told a seminar on “Leveraging sustainable supply chain” at the Westin Dhaka hotel as a panel discussant.

British banking giant HSBC and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) jointly organised the seminar participated by textile producers, garment exporters, representatives from different retailers, brands and donor agencies and bankers.

Hasanat sought cooperation from development agencies to help Bangladesh brighten its image and that of the garment sector for the sustainability of the apparel business.

Shwapna Bhowmick, country manager of British retail giant Marks & Spencer, suggested garment manufacturers and exporters change the traditional marketing system and shorten lead-time to capture more market share in global apparel business.

Bhowmick, who is a Bangladesh-born country manager for the M&S, also called for improving the capacity of the country’s premier Chattogram port as the volume of garment business is increasing.

Local garment manufacturers also need to increase the production volume of the value-added garment items like suits for which retailers, brands and customers pay more, aiding the sustainability of the garment business, she said.

The government is developing 100 special economic zones across the country to attract more investment from both domestic and overseas investors, Md Abul Kalam Azad, principal coordinator for SDG Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office, said while addressing the seminar as the chief guest.

Moreover, the government has already allocated 500 acres of land at Mirsarai in Chattogram to garment manufacturers so that they could build factories there and another 500 acres have been set aside from where more allocation can be availed.

Calling for more investment in the potential agro-processed and pharmaceuticals sectors, Azad said the government has been planning to cultivate cotton—the basic raw material of finished garment products—in Africa to meet the growing demand for the white fibre.

Sustainability of the business mainly depends on the welfare of the employees, said Kutubuddin Ahmed, chairman of Envoy Group, another leading garment and textile producer. But at the same time good practices are required to protect the environment, he said.

Ahmed has launched a host of welfare package for his 2,800 employees at Envoy Textile, which has the world’s first Platinum rated LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) certified green building at Bhaluka.

“At HSBC, our aim is to support the development of sustainable supply chains for our clients, which will help them to grow internationally,” said Francois de Maricourt, CEO of HSBC Bangladesh.

“As the second largest apparel exporter, Bangladesh should continue to drive the sustainable supply chain practices, given the expected impact of climate change.”

“Inclusive business models have the potential to sustainably serve everyone through mutual benefit, be they the smallest enterprises or multinational giants, when tied together in a shared supply chain,” said Sudipto Mukerjee, country director of UNDP Bangladesh.

Impact measurements can help identify supply chain gaps in policy, infrastructure and/or resource and creatively plug them to maximise social benefits and profits for everyone, he said.

Linda Germanis, project manager of UNDP Innovation Hub, gave the keynote presentation.

Rensje Teerink, head of the European Union delegation to Bangladesh; Matthew K Lobner, group general manager, head of international and head of strategy and planning for HSBC Asia Pacific, and Md Mahbub Ur Rahman, deputy CEO and country head for wholesale banking at HSBC Bangladesh, moderated the session.