Leaders of Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCI) have said that the local industries are facing tough challenges.

They said while a delegation of the lone industrial chamber, led by BCI president Anwar-ul Alam Chowdhury (Parvez) called on State Minister for Commerce Ahsanul Islam Titu at his office in the Commerce Ministry on Sunday.

The BCI leaders said the industrial sector of the country is currently going through a challenging time.

“Due to high inflation, the fall in demand drives a decline in sales and the industrial sector can utilise 60-70 percent of their capacity”, said the BCI president adding, low gas pressure, high interest rates on loan and lack of adequate support from banking sector are creating troubles for them.

He also noted that banks are getting more interested to invest in bonds than in lending to the industrial sector due to the central bank’s contractionary policy.

“As a result, there will be a liquidity crisis in the bank. New investment will not come in and the unemployment rate will rise”, he observed.

The BCI president said it is very important to keep local existing industries alive. “We request you that the cash flow of the country's industries should be normal”, he told the State Minister for Commerce.

Senior vice-president of BCI Preeti Chakraborty, vice-president Mohammad Yunus, board of directors, Shahidul Islam Niru, Dr. Delwar Hossain Raja, Abul Kalam Bhuiyan, and Tapan Kanti Ghosh, Senior Secretary, Ministry of Commerce were present on the occasion.