The Government aims to operate trade organisations entirely under a democratic basis, according to Commerce Advisor Sk Bashir Uddin. According to a BSS study released on Saturday, new efforts are being made to draft regulations under the Trade Organisations Act in light of this, he said.
The ‘Trade Organisations Act 2023′ regulations are being drafted by the interim administration. The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) election will take place after the regulations have been framed.
The proposed regulations may lower the number of nominated directors from 34 to 12 and the overall number of directors from the current 80 to less than 50, according to FBCCI and Commerce Ministry officials.
Thirty-four of the 80 directors on the FBCCI board are currently nominated. The chamber group nominates 17 of them, while the association group nominates 17. The remaining directors are elected directly.
“We’re moving the presidential, vice presidential, and other elections under direct election,” stated the Commerce Adviser. “However, we have left room for some nominated members to be included in the BGMEA, BKMEA, and MCCI in order to increase their capacity.”
Those nominations would be made based on three criteria, he said: the creation of jobs, revenue-generating contributions, and investment contributions. The adviser stated that the new regulations would not allow for the continued presence of a Ministry of Commerce representative in the chambers’ highest body.
According to Bashir, only associations based on letterhead were established nationwide over time, and many of them lacked a trading licence and TIN certificate. He noted that those sign-board-focused groups, which were established merely as an auxiliary force to exercise voting rights, do not have offices. According to Sk Bashir, in order to be approved to join an association, the government has made it necessary to have TIN certificates, offices, and trade licenses.
Like other sectors, the FBCCI has been the target of reform requests since 5th August of last year. Mahbubul Alam, the FBCCI president at the time, resigned. The FBCCI board of directors was disbanded by the Ministry of Commerce on 11th September and a new administrator was appointed.
