The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) has taken an initiative to develop an Economic Position Index (EPI) aimed at revealing the real scenario of economic activities and formulating specific recommendations to improve the country's overall economic condition.

DCCI President Taskeen Ahmed said while several local and international indices measure Bangladesh's business environment, they often fail to reflect the true picture of how and why economic activities change.

Against this backdrop, the chamber has undertaken the EPI project, initially focusing on Dhaka city, with plans to gradually expand it nationwide, he said at a focus group discussion, held in Dhaka today, to validate the initiative with input from relevant public and private stakeholders.

EPI is a composite indicator developed by economists to measure a country's overall economic health, combining multiple macroeconomic variables into a single score to track performance over time.

The quarterly index will offer insights into production, sales, order flow, export trends, employment, business confidence and investment patterns in the industrial sector, he added.

During a presentation, AKM Asaduzzaman Patwary, acting secretary general of DCCI, said the index will be prepared based on sample data covering eight industries: food products, textiles, ready-made garments, leather and leather goods, pharmaceuticals and medicinal chemicals, rubber and plastic products, non-metallic mineral products, and basic metals.

Three service sectors, wholesale and retail trade, land transport, and real estate, will also be included.

Miah Rahmat Ali, senior private sector specialist at the International Finance Corporation, said the government is working on a new Insolvency Act to ease business operations.

Md Salim Al Mamun, director of the Chief Economist's Unit at Bangladesh Bank, recommended including agricultural data in future research, while Md Deen Islam, associate professor of economics at the University of Dhaka, suggested revising the research methodology for better macroeconomic analysis.