NN Online:
Commerce Adviser Sk Bashir Uddin has said the government wants to run the trade organisations completely under democratic system.
In view of this, he said, fresh moves are underway for framing rules under the Trade Organizations Act.
The commerce adviser said this while talking recently with the national news agency on the moves for framing new rules for the trade organisations at his office at Bangladesh Secretariat, reports BSS.
“The government wants to make the election process of the representatives of the trade bodies as much as possible. We want to make the trade organisations free from political influence. So, we want to make the election process democratic,” he said.
The interim government has started formulating the rules under the “Trade Organizations Act 2023.” Following framing the rules, the election of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) will be held.
According to officials of the FBCCI and commerce ministry, the new rules may reduce the total number of directors from the current 80 to below 50 while the number of nominated directors might be reduced from 34 to 12.
At present, out of the 80 directors in the FBCCI board, 34 are nominated directors. Among them, 17 are nominated from the chamber group and 17 from the association group, with the remaining directors being elected directly.
The commerce adviser said, “We’re bringing the election process of presidents, vice presidents and others under direct election. However, in order to enhance their capacity, we’ve kept provision for inclusion of some nominated members in the BGMEA, BKMEA, and MCCI.”
Those nominations would be given under three criterions, considering one’s contribution in investment, contributions in the revenue sector and employment creation, he said.
Under the new rules, there would be no provision of keeping representatives in the apex body of the chambers from the Ministry of Commerce, the adviser said.
Bashir said only letterhead-based associations were created over the years across the country, while many of those did not even have TIN certificates and trade licenses.
Those sign-board oriented organizations have no offices which were created only as an auxiliary force to exercise voting rights, he observed.
Sk Bashir said the government has made it mandatory for having TIN certificates, offices, and trade licenses for receiving the approval for forming an association.
“We want to cluster the organisations to end chaos. It is completely unnecessary for having separate associations for a finished product like shoes as it has five related associations,” he said.
“There are also five associations over jute, I don’t know why?” the adviser said adding it was just to show up.
“I told them time and again that I don’t want to be a leader of such associations. I urged them to become united with their combined power and efforts and thus become enriched,” the adviser said.
Since August 5, last year, there have been demands for reforms within the FBCCI, similar to those in other sectors.
The then-president of FBCCI Mahbubul Alam resigned from his position. On September 11, the Ministry of Commerce dissolved the FBCCI board of directors, appointing a new administrator.
As everybody wished for reform within the organisation in accordance with the law, the government has initiated the process for formulating new rules for the trade body organisations.
Officials at the Ministry of Commerce said the formulation of the rules is now almost at the final stage.
