World
Economic Forum (WEF) has put Bangladesh
at 98th position in a survey over
growth competitiveness of 102 countries
in 2003.
In an annual survey report released
worldwide yesterday, the international
agency has also rated Bangladesh
as 86th in the agency’s study
over business competitiveness of
95 counties.
The surveyed countries included
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which
have ranked 56, 73 and 68 in term
of growth competitiveness, while
the three south Asian countries
have ranked 37,72 and 57 by virtue
of their business competitiveness.
Centre For Policy Dialogue (CPD),
partner organisation WEF in Bangladesh,
released the report in Dhaka yesterday.
WEF has done the survey using two
indices—Growth Competitiveness
Index (GCI) and business Competitiveness
Index ( GCI) and adjudged Bangladesh’s
position on the basis of inputs
provided by CPD. GCI is founded
on three central components, namely
macroeconomic environment, quality
of public institutions and technology,
while the BCI reflects microeconomic
fundamentals that focuses on company
sophistication and the quality of
the business environment.
Briefing newsmen about the special
features of the report, Executive
Director of CPD Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya
said among the countries covered
last year, Bangladesh’s GCI
ranking dropped between 2002 and
2003 from 77 to 79, while the country’s
BCI ranking slid from 74 to 75.
Mali, Angola, Chad and Haiti have
been rated below Bangladesh for
GCI, while Mozambique, Nicaragua,
Honduras, Ethiopia, Paraguay, Bolivia,
Chad, Haiti and Angola are placed
lower to Bangladesh for BCI, the
report said.
CPD in its detailed survey report
on quality of national business
environment, basing on which the
country rating was made by the WEF,
pointed out that 96 per cent of
the respondents were most emphatic
about absence of public trust in
the honesty of politicians creating
major impediment to investment in
the country. " It seems over
the years, trust in the honesty
of politicians is experiencing a
secular decline, which was 91.1
per cent in 2001 and 95.6 per cent
in 2002", the report said.
The CPD survey, made on the basis
of opinions of top executives of
81 leading corporations of the country,
said the frequency of bribing has
significantly increased, organised
crime gangs and unreliability of
police in protecting business are
contributing to increasing cost
of business and property right and
legal frame work still poor. "More
than two-third of the companies
stated that judiciary is not independent
from political influences of members
of the government, citizens or firms",
the report mentioned.
The survey has identified corruption
as the number one problematic factor
in doing business, followed by inefficient
bureaucracy, inadequate supply of
infrastructure, law and order, policy
instability and access to financing.
About the role of the World Bank,
Asian Development Bank and International
Monetary Fund, the surveyed companies
gave very marginal response. A large
majority of the respondents either
had either very low opinion or expressed
unawareness about the effectiveness
of these institutions, the report
said, adding "amongst the four,
ADB is most effective (44 per cent),
followed by IMF (42 per cent), while
the World Bank and its affiliate
IFC together ranked third (36 per
cent)", the report said.
