Dhaka has been ranked the worst livable city and Bangladesh one of the most polluted countries in the world. This should make us seriously concerned about our living conditions so that we start taking serious steps to bring change. Why don’t we realise that freeing the city and the country from pollution would not only improve the environment but also create business opportunities? Today, a clean and comfortable city is a critical requirement for attracting investments.
We have to ensure a congenial atmosphere and build investors’ confidence, especially at a time when the country needs investments and to regain a generalised system of preference facility in the US market that remains uncertain.
We have no doubt that Bangladesh has bright prospects to grow and its people have already proved resilience and an enterprising attitude. In that respect, the women of Bangladesh have contributed to growth of a few important sectors such as garments and microcredit. Ahead of the International Women’s Day on March 8, we have covered the rise of Bangladesh women in our cover story titled ‘Beyond the Barriers’. It says that businesses need to recognise what women deserve and can offer to take the country to the next stage of development.
In the special report ‘Business in Beautification’, we covered the beauty parlour industry which has come a long way and is still booming. It also shows the ‘radical shift in the popular perception of Bangladeshi women towards beauty and health, creating enormous opportunities for employment’. In his regular column, Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman writes that economic empowerment of women is the biggest story of change in Bangladesh.
We have highlighted, in the analysis styled ‘Loss begets loss?’,the impact of a recent revision of default loans on the profitability of the banking sector and the investments. In this issue, we have also carried another critical article on ‘Like it or not’, in which the business people themselves debated on the business leaders’ increasing involvement in party politics and whether politisation of the trade bodies is good for the business community.
In an interesting story on ‘Flowers and special days’, we have tried to capture how the month of February, especially the festivity, created business opportunities. Almost silently, the business with flowers is turning into an industry. We have added a new section – Sector focus – and pointed out how varieties of ceramic items made in Bangladesh are capturing markets worldwide.
This March issue has further contained an article on ‘education in business’ that has shown, not a very optimistic picture as businesses are looking for quality manpower with good education. We call upon the authorities concerned to take initiatives for building quality manpower to cater to the needs of the businesses at home and abroad for the sake of welfare of the Bangladeshi people.
