BNP Standing Committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury has alleged that Bangladesh’s economic creativity has been severely damaged over the past seventeen years.
He made the remarks on Saturday during a speech at the Sylhet Business Dialogue, held at the Jalalabad Gas Auditorium in Madinabag. Addressing business owners and entrepreneurs, Khasru said the country’s productive and creative potential had been steadily eroded.
“What Bangladeshis once had in terms of creativity and productivity in the economy, that has been destroyed,” he said. “Now the goal must be to bring it back.”
Khasru emphasized that recovery would not come from government action alone. He argued that businesspeople would need to take the lead and actively participate in restoring economic strength.
“To rebuild the economy, the role of business leaders is crucial,” he added.
A central point in his address was the importance of keeping business separate from political influence. According to Khasru, any real effort to eliminate authoritarian control in the country must begin by ensuring that commerce is free from political entanglement.
He essentially accused the government of throttling business with its politics, telling a crowd that a “grip of fascism” had to be removed. And this isn’t a new message; it’s right in line with the BNP’s constant criticism of the government’s economic record.
Ironically, he said all this at the Sylhet Business Dialogue, a meeting that was supposed to be about finding solutions for the economy, bringing together everyone from business owners to local professionals to talk things out.
Khasru’s comments added a pointed political layer to that conversation. Whether they spark broader debate in policy circles remains to be seen.
