Commerce minister Tipu Munshi on Thursday said the economy of Bangladesh will bounce back at the end of the year as the country’s several business sectors see good demand in the global markets amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The minister remarked it in a virtual workshop organized by Economic Reporters’ Forum (ERF) in association with RAPID and The Asia Foundation on COVID-19 and Bangladesh Economy.

ERF General Secretary SM Rashidul Islam moderated the function while its president Sarif Islam Dilal was chair.

Tipu Munshi said the RGM sector is performing well now amid the Coronavirus fallout. “We have 5-6 sectors including RGM those will help to bounce back our economy at the end of this year. We laid emphasis on several sectors including leather, electronics, pharmaceuticals, light engineering and Jute as these have a good demand in the global markets,” he also said.

The minister said they formed a task force to find out internal problems and resolve these for the sake of quick economic recovery.

“The task force of the ministry holds meetings regularly and communicates with other ministries to turn around the economy in a short time. We are also working with 42 countries to improve export volume. We laid emphasis on the economic zones specially Mirsharai to attract foreigners to invest more here,” he also said.

He added the trade conflict between USA and China may create an opportunity for us. “We have to take the opportunity. It will create more jobs and increase our export earnings. We will lose the opportunities if we work slowly now. So we need more support from the media to catch the markets and bounce back the country’s economy,” he also added.

RAPID chairman Dr Mohammad Abdur Rqzzaque presented the keynote at the workshop-1 titled Covid-19 and International Trade Issue: Policy Options for Promoting Bangladesh's Exports.

Dr Rqzzaque described Covid-19 has lost the world economy $3.8 trillion and 147 million worldwide became unemployed as well as wages dropped by $2.1 trillion. Besides, world exports could fall between $2.47 trillion and 6 trillion.

DCCI president Shams Mahmud, BUILD chairman Abul Kashem Khan, RAPID executive director Dr M Abu Eusuf and others also spoke there.