The government established five specialized working groups on Monday to execute the National Logistics Policy 2025 and enhance Bangladesh’s capabilities for both domestic and international trade. These working groups will concentrate on various aspects such as logistics digitalization, investment, skills enhancement, multimodal logistics infrastructure, and trade facilitation. Notifications from the Prime Minister’s Office released at the end of the previous week outlined the objectives of each group.
These panels were created in accordance with decisions made by the National Logistics Development and Coordination Committee (NLDCC). The National Logistics Policy 2025 was introduced by the interim government with the goal of positioning Bangladesh as a key regional trade and logistics center by 2050. This policy replaced the previous one established in April 2024 under the ousted Awami League-led government.
One of the working groups, focusing on trade facilitation, will be overseen by the commerce secretary. Its primary task is to devise time-bound strategies to streamline import and export processes, customs clearance, cargo release, and port and border management. Additionally, this group will monitor advancements related to the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO-TFA) and propose frameworks for enhancing efficiency in various areas such as pre-arrival processing, electronic declarations, automated clearance, risk management, green channels, Authorised Economic Operators, and post-clearance audits.
The logistics digitalization working group, led by the secretary of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division, will develop a roadmap for real-time monitoring of goods, containers, and vehicles throughout the supply chain. It will also work on integrating digital systems among customs, ports, transport, warehousing, tax authorities, and banking institutions, and establish key performance indicators for a National Logistics Dashboard.
Another group, spearheaded by an executive member of Invest Bangladesh, will focus on investment opportunities in the sector, both foreign and domestic. The logistics infrastructure working group, under the guidance of the physical infrastructure member at the Planning Commission, will devise plans for short-, medium-, and long-term physical infrastructure improvements. This group will also identify bottlenecks in transport modes, ports, inland container depots, container freight stations, and logistics hubs, as well as assess and prioritize potential public-private partnership projects in the logistics sector.
Lastly, the skills development working group has been assigned the responsibility of identifying skill gaps and evaluating the human resource needs within the logistics industry.