Around 72 per cent of the firms surveyed are yet to receive any stimulus package, according to a survey of South Asian Network of Economic Modeling (SANEM).

The major challenges include lack of package for the industry, lengthy procedure, difficulty in bank-related services, and difficulty in the information, the SANEM report said.

“There is no significant improvement in these areas,” it mentioned.

The survey report added that the small firms were largely out of stimulus package coverage. Only 8 per cent of the firms have received the stimulus package out of the 301 Micro and small firms surveyed, according to UNB.

“In the case of large firms, out of 157 firms surveyed, 41 per cent received the stimulus package,” the survey said.

SANEM in collaboration with the Asia Foundation presented the results from the second round of a nation-wide firm-level survey on “COVID-19 and Business Confidence in Bangladesh: Towards Economic Recovery.”

The results of the survey, conducted over the month of October, were disclosed through a webinar on Saturday.

“Corruption, poor trade logistics, unfavorable tax system, access to finance, and management of ineffective management of the COVID 19 health crisis appear to be the major challenges,” the survey also said.

“Some 71 per cent of the surveyed firms think that Bangladesh is on the path to economic recovery. Of them, only 6 per cent consider it a strong recovery, and 57 per cent and 37 per cent think it is a moderate and weak recovery, respectively,” it informed.

Economists said effective implementation of the stimulus package is critically important for quick recovery of the Covid hit economy.

Dr Selim Raihan, Executive Director of SANEM stressed on the importance of proper implementation and disbursement of stimulus packages for SMEs.

“Although business confidence for the next quarter has improved slightly, it is clear from the study that businesses are still quite sceptical of the future,” the professor of Economics at Dhaka University, added.

Dr. Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director of Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) noted that Entrepreneurs are showing caution and rightfully so.  Availing finance is a much bigger challenge for small and medium enterprises, unlike large companies that have access to international finance.

“Therefore, the government needs to implement a second stimulus package with a focus particularly on SMEs,” he also said.

In comparison to the first round of the quarterly survey which included 303 firms, a larger and more representative sample of 502 firms across 37 districts participated in the second round.  Out of the 502 firms, 252 belonged to the manufacturing sector whereas 250 belonged to the service sector.

The main objective of this ongoing project is to assess the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on business confidence and outlook in Bangladesh. In order to capture this information, firms were asked to express their opinion on six key issues: profitability, investment, employment, wage, business cost, and sales/exports.

Dr M Masrur Reaz, Chairman of Policy Exchange of Bangladesh, Abul Kasem Khan, Managing Director of A.K. Khan Telecom Limited; Asif Ibrahim, Chairman of Chittagong Stock Exchange and Maliha M Quadir, Founder and Managing Director of Shohoz Limited, among others, also spoke there.