Businesses hope for the year 2025 to bring about stability as normalcy has started to be restored in businesses following turbulent times both at home and abroad.

Local businesses have been severely affected from some internal and external issues over the last few years.

The year 2024 was a challenging year for businesses and the firms do not want a recurrence of the untoward incidents of the outgoing year as their trade was severely affected.

For instance, for a time the country's economy struggled to recover from the severe fallouts of the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, high global inflationary pressure and dollar shortage.

Last year the local businesses had to cope with a political upheaval in the months of July and August, and labour unrest in September and October and the subsequent deterioration of law and order.

All those factors severely affected business such as import, export, investment and transportation and shipment of goods.

Meanwhile, the ailing and corruption-riddled banking sector has been struggling to brighten its image and to increase liquidity to regain customers' confidence. The dollar shortage in the banking sector also impacted the prices of imported commodities.

Businesses want stability in the banking sector and an end to the liquidity crisis so that they can conduct transactions smoothly. They also want an existing gas and power crisis to be addressed in the new year.

The inflow of investment or expansion plans for existing capacities was also affected because of the unhealthy business environment in 2024.

Despite the massive political turmoil in 2024, it is believed that the year would end on a positive note, said KM Rezaul Hasanat, chairman of Viyellatex Group and president of Bangladesh Independent Power Producers' Association.

"The reason—significant remittance growth and textile and apparel exports still in the positive. Domestic market is struggling a little but by the end of the financial year, it will catch up," he said.

"The year 2025 for business, as well as the economic prospects, depends on the political situation," he said.

"If the political situation improves, then law and order, issues like power and energy crisis and other facilities will improve automatically," Hasanat said.

"By the way, I am expecting the Trump business policy to help our foreign direct investment and businesses indirectly. Again, the business potential in 2025 is very good if the country can ensure political stability," he added.

Almost every entrepreneur is worried about inflation, high bank interest rate, and low production capacity for low gas pressure in industrial units, said Anwar Ul Alam Chowdhury, chairman of Evince Group and president of the Bangladesh Chamber of Industries.

At the same time, businesspeople have lost confidence in the deterioration of law and order, he said.

An uncertainty is also prevailing in the political arena, which may affect businesses. If adequate investment does not come about, employment will also be affected, he added.

"We are expecting that all those challenges will be addressed in the new year and business confidence will also be restored," he said.

Hopefully the business environment and economic stability will be restored through reductions in inflation and bank interest rates, said Kamran T Rahman, chairman and managing director of The Kapna Tea Co.

The US dollar shortage is also expected to be resolved in the new year through some positive measures, said Rahman, also president of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, over the phone.

Overall, everything is expected to be positive in the new year, he said.

The views were echoed by Faruque Hassan, managing director of Giant Group and former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

The outgoing year could have been much better. Hardly any new investment came about in the garment sector because of the deterioration in the business environment, he said.

Demand for garment items has been rebounding with the revival of the global economy, said Hassan.

Bangladesh has the potential to export more if the country is politically stable. It is expected that the year 2025 will be positive for business, he also said.

Fresh investment or expansion of existing capacities may come about once the political situation reaches stability, he said.

In the new year, the garment sector may witness the arrival of new products, establishment of new factories and replacement of old machinery, said Hassan.

This is because international clothing retailers and brands are coming back to Bangladesh with large volumes of work orders, he said.

The inflow of new investment or capacity expansion is largely dependent on stable law and order, he said.

"However, I predict that the year 2025 will go well as normalcy is being restored gradually, and the global economic situation is rebounding," added Hassan.

Corruption, bribery, and thefts should also be curbed to make the environment more business friendly, said the former BGMEA president.

Abdul Hai Sarker, chairman of Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB) said the new year's projection is very good, but the law and order needs to be restored soon.

For instance, the business of garments waste (jhoot) is controlled by the local musclemen and the factory owners are not capable of controlling them because of the poor law and order.

Establishing supremacy on local jhoot business by the local influential people is one of the major causes of poor law and order situation in the industrial zones.

The private sector needs to be engaged more with the policy formulation as the private sector entrepreneurs are the final executors because of the nature of the country's economy, Sarker also said.

"Freedom of doing business is still absent here," the BAB chairman also said.