Private sector to lead Energy battle: Salman

Dhaka, Jan 23 (bdnews7.blogspot.com)— The energy crisis will receive most attention from the Sheikh Hasina-led government, and much of the work will be done by the private entrepreneurs, says the Awami League chief's adviser on private sector Salman F Rahman. "Our leader has already set out the agenda and the priorities," Rahman told a TV show Friday night. "The prime minister has also said efforts to develop or promote alternative energy based on solar, wind etc will be given maximum possible incentives." Rahman, who runs Bangladesh's biggest industrial group Beximco, laughed off suggestions that the current global economic crisis would hit the country hard. "This crisis is mostly about excessive lending," he said, "and we are not exposed to international banking system." Rahman, FBCCI president in the mid 1990s, said fears of the Western recession hitting Bangladesh's exports were exaggerated and that he did not see much impact on remittance, too. "Even if garments suffer price cut, there are signs that volume will take care of the shortfall," the Beximco Group vice chairman said. A former president of pharmaceutical manufacturers' group, Rahman said the industry had the potential to fetch much more than the current projection of $ 3 billion from exports. "It can overtake the $ 11 billion garment business." Replying to a question, he said he now believed politics would pose "a conflict of interest" for him—the reason why he did not run Dec. 29 polls. "Politics and business could not go hand in hand," Rahman said.