Desk Report:
Honorable Prime Minister Tarique Rahman held a high-level meeting with private sector entrepreneurs. Through this, the country’s business representatives provided timely and structured opinions to the highest level of the government on the business environment, investment environment and reform priorities.
The meeting was held at the Prime Minister’s Office at 11:30 am on Saturday (April 04, 2026) under the chairmanship of the Honorable Prime Minister.
The private sector entrepreneurs are: Dr. Arif Daula, Managing Director, ACI PLC; Syed Nasim Manzur, Managing Director, Apex Footwear Limited; Hafizur Rahman Khan, Chairman, Runner Group; Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, Chairman and CEO, PRAN-RFL Group; Ziaur Rahman, Managing Director, Bay Group; Abdul Muktadir, Chairman and Managing Director, Incepta Group; Md. Abdul Jabbar, Managing Director, DBL Group; Sohana Rouf Chowdhury, Managing Director, Rangs Group; and Syed Mohammad Tanvir, Managing Director, Pacific Jeans Group.
At the invitation of the Honorable Prime Minister, the meeting was also attended by Honorable Finance Minister Mr. Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Energy Minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmud, Honorable Commerce Minister Mr. Khandaker Abdul Muktadir, State Minister for Energy Anindya Islam Amit, Advisor to the Prime Minister Mahdi Amin and BIDA Chairman Chowdhury Ashiq Mahmud Bin Harun.
Honorable Prime Minister Tarique Rahman delivered the opening remarks at the meeting. This was followed by an open discussion among the entrepreneurs, where various issues related to regulatory environment, energy, human resources, tax policy, logistics, export diversification and foreign direct investment came up. The entrepreneurs appreciated the government’s initiative in establishing this forum and the mindset of creating an open and business-friendly environment by engaging with the private sector. The entrepreneurs will now prepare a short proposal based on the private sector’s feedback, accompanied by a targeted and effective action plan to address the immediate business environment challenges.
The Prime Minister further suggested that the proposal should include evidence-based legal, policy and regulatory examples from other countries to keep Bangladesh globally competitive. BIDA will act as the coordinating agency on the government side and will provide necessary support for the effective implementation of the proposed action plan in coordination with the relevant ministries and government agencies.
BIDA Executive Chairman Ashiq Chowdhury said, “The objective of this meeting with entrepreneurs is to create an effective mechanism for providing consistent and structured feedback from the private sector at the highest levels of government. We are grateful to the Honorable Prime Minister for taking the lead in this regard and bringing together business representatives to advance the country’s reform and investment agenda.”
