There is no overnight cure for the deep-rooted challenges facing the country's banking sector, Abdul Awal Mintoo, former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), said yesterday.

He also said the initiatives that the Bangladesh Bank has taken so far are not enough to bring down non-performing loans.

He made the remarks while speaking on the current business and investment environment and the way forward at the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF) office in Dhaka. The ERF organised the conversation.

Minto added that printing money to lend to cash-strapped banks is a misstep because it can cause inflationary pressures -- a thorn in Bangladesh's side for over two years -- in the domestic markets to intensify.

The economic data requires a lot of corrections, including in exports and imports, as the real data was not published during the last government's regime

The investment environment climate is attractive enough to lure in foreign direct investment, he added.

More than 96 percent of investment comes from people's savings, but they can hardly save due to high inflation, he said.

In recent times, well-dressed people are also standing in queues in front of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh's Open Market Sales programme, which sells essentials at subsidised prices through trucks.

The former FBCCI president also said a warm relationship with India is needed for the sake of the country's interests.

Minto also said Bangladesh should not graduate from the group of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and get the status of a developing nation based on false economic data.

A recent white paper on the state of the economy estimated that Bangladesh's gross domestic product had been overstated by 3.5 percentage points on average between FY13 and FY19.

"The economic data requires a lot of corrections, including in exports and imports, as the real data was not published during the last government's regime," he said.

Replying to queries, Mintoo said the corporate culture in the country has not improved yet as most big corporations are still very much family businesses.

He said the country's failure to produce an adequate number of qualified personnel to run such big corporations efficiently was one of the reasons for that.

However, this can cause serious problems for businesses, as exemplified by Beximco Group, which has been in hot water since the arrest of its vice-chairman Salman F Rahman after the political changeover.

Salman also served as the private industry affairs adviser to deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Regarding corruption under the past government, he said a section of people considered bribes to be an investment. It was not a political party but a section of people that ran the country without holding acceptable elections, Mintoo said.

He added that an acceptable election is needed to improve the business and investment environment.

He said a special environment must be prepared to attract investment, especially to capitalise on investments that are being shifted away from China.

Other countries are attracting that capital because of a good investment environment, he added.

He added that foreign direct investment has been slowing because foreign investors think Bangladesh is a risky country for parking funds.

Significant discrimination is being noticed in the country's education and health sectors and an elected government can remove such discrimination, he opined.

Mintoo expects the interim government will announce a roadmap to elections soon as all reform reports will be submitted to the government by the end of this month.

The way the government has been freezing the bank accounts of businessmen is not right. Such steps will affect business, he said.