Working Committees

Seven Working Committees

BUILD has seven thematic working committees, each with its own ability to implement recommendations since each is co-chaired by a private-sector leader and a high-up official from a relevant Ministry of the Government of Bangladesh (GoB).

4IR and ICT Working Committee

4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) and ICT working committee (4IR&ICTWC) has been initiated with a view to harnessing the benefits of 4IR and ICT for Bangladesh economy in terms of expediting growth and creating new employment opportunities by close cooperation among public and private sector on relevant policies and practices. The committee organises public-private dialogue to gather inputs from the public and private sector and conduct policy advocacy to fit in the private sector with technological advancement. In line with SDG 4, Target 4.4 and SDG 8, Target 8.2, 4IR&ICTWC works to help to achieve a higher level of economic productivity through increasing technological and vocational skills among youths and technological upgrading and innovation in the private sector. Members of the working committee range from high-level government officials and private sector representatives to academicians and development partners.

The committee works broadly in the following areas of activities: promoting policy reform for facilitating and maximising benefits from the 4IR and ICT while minimising disruptive impact, coordination among stakeholders to ensure that national efforts are in mutual alignment, promoting technology transfer and technological innovation in the Private Sector, facilitating matchmaking and integration of local and global actors, facilitating policies for freelancing and sustainable online labour market for Bangladesh, creating robust infrastructure and policy support for the e-commerce sector.

Financial Sector Development Working Committee

Financial Sector Development Working Committee (FSDWC) of BUILD aims to hear from the private sector and demonstrate the financial sector with the commitment to provide a conducive business environment. FSDWC endeavours to meet the needs of an evolving financial sector in the country. BUILD’s FSDWC team aims to facilitate them through undertaking dynamic research for monitoring different regulations, making recommendations for reform in order to overcome the constraints to financial sector growth. The committee has representatives from the concerned private and public sector. BUILD research team is actively engaged in obtaining inputs from the private sector at large, conducting detailed analysis and research, and identifying constraints to business growth related to the financial sector.

The scope of FSDWC is to address the development and reform in four areas: Access to finance, capital market development, regulation of bank and non-bank financial institution and payment system. The formal sector includes all regulated institutions like banks, non-bank financial institutions (FIs), insurance companies, capital market intermediaries like brokerage houses, merchant banks, microfinance institutions (MFIs).

As for its objectives, the FSDWC—

intends to improve access and affordability of banking and other financial services
anticipates improving savings mobilisation by creating the appropriate environment for the development of long-term financial tools and an efficient capital market
aims at developing an effective reform policy, legal and regulatory framework
looks into governance issues in the financial sector where reforms can be initiated for development
simplifies procedures for undertaking business and intends to establish, expand and modernise the bond market development

Logistics Infrastructure Development Working Committee

Logistics infrastructure development has been treated as one of the key factors to ensure harmonised and decentralised industrialisation in the modern, competitive, and complex business era. To attain the targets set for macroeconomic indicators as if export diversification, export earnings, employment generation, domestic and foreign investment inflow, sustainable GDP growth, socio-economic development, etc., and the countries with visionary focus have concentrated on logistics infrastructure development.

In that regard, BUILD and Prime Minister’s Office have jointly formed a dedicated thematic working committee under the format of PPD Platform, namely Logistics Infrastructure Development Working Committee (LIDWC), to provide policy assistance to reach the Logistics System of Bangladesh to global height. The committee has 13 representatives from the public sector, and 12 from the private sector joined LIDWC as valued members.

Objectives of LIDWC are as follows—

Facilitate private sector business to increase its competitiveness
Analyse policies for reforms to facilitate Logistics as a priority sector
Support activities for attracting investment in the logistics sector

The vision of LIDWC is to “Provide ‘Data-Driven, Fact and Research-Based Policy Advocacy’ to the Government of Bangladesh to achieve ‘Targeted Macro Economic Indicators of Perspective Plan 2021-2041’ by taking initiatives to establish ‘Efficient and Responsive Logistics Infrastructure System’ as the Competitive Advantage.” LIDWC will act as the Secretariat to provide fact-based and data-driven policy research to the government based on the recommendations and suggestions of public and private sector representatives.

SME Development Working Committee

SME Development Working Committee was initiated with a view to identify constraints to SME business development and promote SMEs for alleviating poverty and generating employment for Bangladesh economy in terms of expediting growth and creating new employment opportunities by close cooperation among the public and private sector on relevant policies and practices.

The committee organises Public-Private Dialogue (PPD) to gather inputs from the public and private sector and conduct policy advocacy to fit in the private sector with the SME-friendly advancement. The committee aims to—

Identify the constraints to SME business development.
Expedite the economic growth of the private sector through employment creation.
Increase the SME contribution to GDP and exports.
Provide suggestions for improvements or reforms in the SME sector to improve the overall business environment and attract new investors.
Increase start-up through policy simplification.
Also, take the most pressing high priority sectoral issues raised from the private sector and identifying the best way to implement them.
Facilitate SME access to finance by creating and supporting appropriate strategies and institutions.
Identify and report policy anomalies, market and institutional failures that are prejudicial to the legitimate interests of SMEs.
Develop the capacity of public and private sector SME service providers. And
Develop a database on SMEs and SME sectors.

Sustainability and Green Growth Working Committee

The Sustainability and Green Growth Working Committee (SGGWC) works as a PPD platform to gather inputs from government, private sector, civil society, and development partners to make businesses resource-efficient and environmentally responsible.

The specific objectives of the Sustainability and Green Growth Working Committee (SGGWC) are as follows:

To advocate policy recommendations on enabling the private sector to achieve environmental sustainability and resource use efficiency.
To engage policymakers, private sector, civil society and development partners through dialogues, meetings, and other interactive processes to create awareness, interest and activities on climate change, environmental damage, disaster risk reduction for developing compliant and resource-efficient entrepreneurship.
To bridge the twin goals of sustainability and competitiveness in various industry sectors by conducting research and facilitating sectoral planning and strategy development.

The SGGWC has conducted a series of studies on sustainability and climate change issues, including green financing and the Green Transformation Fund (GTF), environmental sustainability in the Plastic Sector, sustainable transport, and battery-run electric three-wheelers, and Extended Producers’ Responsibility for waste management.

The SGGWC team has undertaken a number of projects as well, such as the Textile Sustainability Platform (phases 1 to 3), Assessing Investment Opportunities for MSMEs in Southwest Bangladesh, Business Opportunities in Mongla and Southwest region for climate migrants, climate finance transparency mechanism (CFTM), Sustainable Transportation in Bangladesh, and so on.

Taxation Working Committee

Taxation Working Committee (TWC) focuses on tax policy reforms for private sector development and acceleration of economic growth in Bangladesh. The prime objectives of TWC are to remove tax policy constraints toward private sector development in Bangladesh. This working committee is envisioned as the bridge that connects the public and private sector for better communication, coordination, and collaboration in bringing reforms in for a business-friendly tax environment in the country.

Since its inception, BUILD has been placing Income Tax, VAT and Customs related reform proposals based on its in-house structured research under TWC to the National Board of Revenue (NBR) before the National Budget announcement. BUILD’s TWC works closely with the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and apex private sector bodies to create an enabling policy environment for Businesspeople in Bangladesh. TWC has arranged several full-fledged working committee Meetings, several In House Meeting with NBR and lots of issue-based one on one meeting and many National Budget Consultation Meeting.

Mainly this committee provides a transparent and well consulted private sector development-related policy support in Bangladesh and supports d the valid policy option to accelerate the local industries with fact and figures, pros and cons of the proposed changes placed by different industries.

Trade and Investment Working Committee

Trade and Investment Working Committee provides research and policy advocacy to ensure trade facilitation as well as to provide fact-based recommendations for policy simplification through its PPD Platform. The committee consists of 22 members, of whom five are from the public sector, and the rest of the 17 are from the private sector.

Objectives of the Trade and Investment Working Committee (T&IWC) are as follows:

To analyse the policy gaps that hinder the flawless growth economic growth and place fact-based simplified policy assistance to the government to reach the set target on private sector growth.
To provide policy recommendations to boost the flow of domestic and foreign investment.
To act as a public-private dialogue platform, place the private sector’s voice to the public sector policymakers to ensure simplified policy advocacy.

Furthermore, the research wing of T&IWC provides policy advocacy and research assistance to the Working Group on Improvement of Investment Climate at PMO. It also assists the Ministry of Commerce to prepare Export Policy and Import Policy Order. Moreover, T&IWC works very closely with the EC4J project to ensure the export competitiveness of Bangladesh by creating decent job creation. Under the EC4J Project of the Ministry of Commerce, BUILD also implements a component, ‘Provide Policy Advocacy Support through Structured Public-Private Dialogue. In addition, T&IWC acts as the nominated focal point of BUILD in the Bangladesh Trade Portal of the Ministry of Commerce that is the subcomponent of the Regional Connectivity Project implementing by the Ministry of Commerce.

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