New BCI committee takes charge

Anwar-Ul Alam Chowdhury, chairman of Evince Group and former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), took charge of Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI) as its president on Saturday.

Priti Chakraborty, chairman of the Universal Medical Collage and Hospital, and Shahidul Islam Niru, director, Ecochem Bangladesh, took charge of the chamber as senior vice president and vice president respectively in a meeting held at its board room, according to a press statement. They were elected in an election held last month.

AK Azad, president of Dhaka University Alumnai Association and former president of FBCCI and BCCI was present at the programme.

On the occasion, BCCI leaders promised that the new committee will take steps for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and to bring up new entrepreneurs.

Delivering the welcome speech, Priti Chakraborty said, "We want to make BCI a common platform for all Bangladeshi enterprises," adding that the chamber will work to support the Covid-19 affected micro and small-sized enterprises (MSEs).

Ak Azad said "BCI should take an assisting role in industrialisation and creating jobs across the country."
He urged the chamber to come forward in effectively helping Covid-19 affected enterprises.

Anwar-Ul Alam Chowdhury, said, "As BCI is the only national industry chamber operating in the country, we all must try to play the necessary role in overcoming all obstacles in the way of all local industries."

"Bangladeh's economy is mainly dependent on garment and textile, remittance, and agriculture sectors. However, we need to reduce dependency on garment and textile, and focus on light engineering, agro-based industry, halal goods, blue economy, leather products etc, if we want to sustain the economic growth after Bangladesh upgrades from being a LDC country," said the re-elected president of BCI.

BCI has already started working to create new entrepreneurs, and developing MSEs, light engineering, agro-based industries, he added.
Among others Md Helal Uddin, outgoing vice-president, Rizwan Rahman, outgoing director also spoke on the occasion.