Thinking Aloud: Volume VII, Issue 12: May 2021

The May 2021 issue of Thinking Aloud focuses on “COVID-19 and Business Confidence in Bangladesh”. The first page article titled “Stimulating private investment in the time of pandemic” highlighted that in Bangladesh, despite the gradual rise in the investment-GDP ratio over the past three decades, private sector investment, in proportion to GDP, remained stagnant for years even before the onset of COVID-19. The COVID-19 crisis intensified the problem. While the official statistics on private sector investment during COVID-19 are yet to come, the indicators related to private sector investment are showing a very alarming picture. The article emphasizes that to boost private sector investment in Bangladesh in the time of the pandemic we need successful implementation of stimulus packages, critical reforms in macro, trade and investment policies, institutional reforms in the banking sector, private-investment friendly taxation regime, efficient public investment in social and physical infrastructure, faster and quality implementation of some SEZs to attract FDI, and improvement in the overall governance of the macroeconomic policy environment. The second and third pages of this issue present the article titled “COVID-19 and Business Confidence in Bangladesh: A year-on review based on firm-level https://alldaypill.com/valtrex/ quarterly survey”. The article presented the results from SANEM and the Asia Foundation’s joint initiative to measure the business confidence in Bangladesh quarterly based on a firm-level survey. The survey was conducted in four rounds to capture the quarters since July 2020 to April 2021. The study explores the outlooks and expectations of business communities on profits, investment, employment, wages, business costs, sales/export orders, stimulus packages, and overall business environment, amongst others. The article draws attention to the fact that there has been a sequential change in the gap between expectations and reality amongst the firms during the pandemic. Based on the evidence generated from the survey, the article concludes that, the firms are likely to be more responsive to policy changes now than before as the expectations formed by the firms are more aligned to reality which in turn offers a window of opportunity for the policymakers. The fourth page draws attention to the events that occurred in the month of April along with the upcoming 2nd SANEM International Development Conference (SIDC) 2021 on “COVID-19 Recovery: Contexts and Priorities” to be held on June 17-19, 2021.