News Flash
DHAKA, Oct 16, 2025 (BSS) - Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin today expressed hope that interest rates would reduce substantially early next year.
"The current economic adjustment is providing the necessary firepower to the central bank to address this issue," he said.
The adviser made the remarks while speaking as the chief guest at the launching ceremony of the 4th edition of "Bangladesh Business Climate Index (BBX-4) 2024-2025" at MCCI in the city.
The Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka (MCCI) and Policy Exchange Bangladesh (PEB) jointly prepared the BBX.
Bashir called upon the private sector to take collective responsibility and engage productively.
He urged businesses to come forward with three specific, actionable proposals -voluntary compliance, supervisory structures and regulatory changes.
He concluded by challenging the private sector, stating, "If you can say there is corruptions, you know, I'm working in three independent ministries.
Come and tell me where I have corruptions in those ministries. I will handle it. You have my promise."
While delivering the welcome speech, MCCI President Kamran T Rahman laid emphasis on structural transformation to sustain long-term competitiveness, especially as the nation approaches Least Developed Country (LDC) graduation.
To position Bangladesh as a credible, future-ready economy and manage shifting global trade, technology, and investment dynamics, he said, the country requires continued progress across financial inclusion, digitalization, infrastructure, skills development and regulatory
simplification.
At the presentation, Chairman and CEO of Policy Exchange Bangladesh M Masrur Reaz said that the business climate in Bangladesh showed signs of slight stabilization during the last fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25).
The BBX score reached 59.69 for 2024-25, which was 58.75 at the previous fiscal year 2023-24, he added.
He mentioned that this slight rebound suggests some stabilization, particularly in supporting macro foundations, and is linked to incremental
policy measures and adjustments made at the firm level.
Trade and Investment Commissioner of the Australian High Commission to Bangladesh Ben Carson attend the event as the guest of honour.
Among others, President of the Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI) Anwar-Ul-Alam Chowdhury (Parvez), Managing Director of the Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited Rupali Chowdhury and JETRO Country Representative Kazuiki Kataoka
also spoke on the occasion.
The BBX is based on 11 pillars - starting a business, access to land, availability of regulatory information, infrastructure, labour regulation,
dispute resolution, trade facilitation, paying taxes, technology adoption, access to finance and environmental regulations and standards.
According to the report, the highest-performing pillars for 2024-25 were infrastructure and labour Regulation, indicating relatively strong support
systems for businesses. Infrastructure specifically remained the highest-performing pillar overall.
Signs of improvement were observed in several specific pillar areas. Notably, access to finance rebounded from the previous year, reflecting a slight or partial recovery in financial support available to enterprises.
Other pillars showing improvement include starting a business, access to land, dispute resolution, and paying taxes.
Despite being high performers, scores for both infrastructure and labour regulation saw a drop compared to the previous year.
Declines were also observed for several other crucial pillars, including availability of regulatory information, trade facilitation, technology
adoption, and environmental regulations and standards.
Among the analysed metrics, Environmental Regulations and Standards were listed among the lowest scoring pillars.
