We can see that the Consumer Protection Act 2009 provides that only competent government officers are entitled to institute a case against the culprit for violation of such laws in Bangladesh. A common consumer cannot initiate any legal action against him except lodging a complaint to the department concerned. The existing Consumer Rights Protection department is situated inside the Secretariat that discourages people to lodge complaint because of the restriction on entrances to the Secretariat. No court shall take cognizance if charge sheet is not submitted within 90 days from the date of compliant. So, the Court is virtually ineffective and the power is assumed by the department and they have a wide scope in involving corruption. Traders know it well that the customers are not eligible to institute a suit or take action against them except the Government officials and they also know how to manage such officers. Due to these legal flaws consumers are not duly protected. Therefore, these legal flaws are to be removed to allow the consumers to institute a suit in the court of law. The ignorance of consumers as to their legal protection is one of the reasons for non-implementation of the legal provisions for their protection. Moreover, people want to avoid legal action due to delay in proceedings and unnecessary expenses and also mental harassment incurred in a court of law.

The existing District Committee under section-1 of the Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009 chaired by the DC’s are dysfunctional due to their heavy load in other administrative functions.

No Upazilla or Union Committee has yet been established for the protection of the rights of the consumers under section-13 of the Act, 2009 or any Rules or Regulations has not yet been made under sections, 13, 81 and 82 of the Act. No power of the Director General to take action against private health and medical service.

The reasons behind the problem:

The reasons behind the problems of the existing consumer rights protection mechanisms are:

• Restriction to the filing of individual complaint to the Police Stations;
• Lack of monitoring systems;
• Laws are not effectively enforced;
• Scope of corruption by the Department concerned;
• Lack of accountability of the Department concerned;
• Lack of expertise in examining products for safety and maintaining standards and quality;
• No frequent testing or examination of food, food stuffs or drugs after giving license to produce and sell;
• No political commitment;
• Lack of coordination between different organizations of the Government;
• Lack of expertise in the BSTI;

Bangladesh does not have an air act or law that specifically addresses air pollution and its management and control. What we find is either absence or little effective cooperation of the members of the public and the concerned agencies with the Department of Environment (DOE) in implementation of laws and regulations to help reduce air pollution. DOE gets little cooperation also from the transport owners and their employees including drivers in this regard. DOE's initiatives for daily monitoring of vehicles at certain city points sometimes do not succeed due to non-availability of members of law enforcing agencies.

The reasons behind the problem:

The fundamental flaw in all existing pollution control and conservation related laws and regulations in Bangladesh are that there is no mechanism for their actual implementation. To put it simply, there is not much one can do if the agency responsible for the implementation of the specific law does not do so. This is perpetuated by the absence of any time limit within which actions are to be taken. Few of the myriad of reasons why an agency may not implement a law are: lack of public pressure, negligence and bureaucratic apathy, political and/or administrative pressures, lack of funds, lack of trained personal; etc. There is no independent law in Bangladesh to address the problems of solid waste. There is neither an independent law regarding the solid waste problem nor any clean air act or law that specifically addresses air pollution and its management and control in Bangladesh.

The Copyright Act 2000, the Trade Marks Act 1940, Patents and Designs Act 1911 have been enacted to protect intellectual property in Bangladesh.

The following Intellectual property rights are protected under these laws:

A trademark is a distinctive sign which identifies certain goods or services as those produced or provided by a specific person or enterprise. The trademarks system helps consumers identify and purchase a product or service because its nature and quality, indicated by its unique trademark, meets their needs. A registered trademark provides protection to the owner of the mark by ensuring the exclusive right to use it to identify goods or services, or to authorize another to use it in return for payment. In Bangladesh trademarks and service marks are registered under The Trademarks Act- 2009. Registration provides 7 years protection; it can be renewed every after 10 year on payment of renewal fees Copyrights are protected for original intellectual work of literature, art, music, software, etc. under The copyrights Act – 2000. Copyright exist up to 60 years after the death of copyright owner.

A patent is a special right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides, in general, a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem. Under the Patents and Designs Act -1911 patents are granted. Patents provide 16 years protection from the date of filing of the application.

An industrial design is the ornamental or aesthetic aspect of an article. The design may consist of three-dimensional features, such as the shape or surface of an article, or of two-dimensional features, such as patterns, lines or color. Industrial designs are protected under The Patents and Designs Act -1911. Registration of assign is given for 5 years. It could be renewed twice, each renewal remains valid for 5 years.

The Department of Patents, Designs and Trademarks (DPDT) administers all the above mentioned IP rights except copyrights. Copyright Office, a Register of Copyright and a Copyright Board under Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Bangladesh administers Copyright related rights. Further, the Copyright Board is in charge of granting copyright license. The Act sets the duration of copyright at sixty years for any published novel, music, film, photographs, sound recording etc. Where an application is made by any person under the Act the Registrar of Copyright may allow that person to publish such works if he believes it to be in the public interest provided the copyright holder is adequately compensated. The Act empowers the Government to order, by notification in the gazette, works published or presented abroad or by international institutions to be regarded as if they were published in Bangladesh simultaneously.

The economy of Bangladesh is a rapidly developing market-based economy. Bangladesh has made significant advances in its economic sector performance since independence in 1971. Although the economy has improved vastly in the 1990s, Bangladesh still suffers major impediments to economic development.

The World Bank in its report, “Bangladesh Strategy for Sustained Growth” has mentioned about several obstacles; such as the inadequate energy supply, congested ports and underdeveloped transport networks connecting the ports with the hinterland impose a major drag on economic performance. Access to power is one of the top obstacles for economic development. Infrastructure blocks related to power and trade facilitation (ports and transportation) are severe in Bangladesh and place a major complication on economic performance. The most serious and immediate of the infrastructure constraints is the widespread and growing shortage of electricity.

The World Bank also mentions about the following factors as the constraints for the economic development:

• Inadequate infrastructure (especially power and ports): There has not been any increase in generation capacity of power supply for a few years, mainly due to governance-related problems. Bangladesh’s main port, Chittagong port, is among the most inefficient and cost ineffective in the region.
• Governance: Many important aspects of governance are very weak. Transparency International has ranked Bangladesh last in its corruption ratings for five years in a row. This extracts a significant price in terms of lost growth potential.
• Urbanization: Urbanization has been rapid and largely imbalanced. A quarter of the population now lives in urban areas, while in 1960 the number was just 5%. Fifty percent of GDP is spent on urban activities. Urbanization has been skewed toward Dhaka, making it among the fastest growing metropolises in the world. This is adding to growing concerns about congestion, lagging urban planning and management, and skyrocketing real estate prices.
• Export competitiveness: Bangladesh is one of the most closed economies in the world. Opening up trade has to be one of the pillars of future growth. Growth dividends from trade openness will depend upon concomitant investment climate reforms to boost competitiveness of domestic firms. However, the country should take into account how a reduction in tariffs will affect revenue considering that tariffs constitute about 50% of the already weak tax collection effort.
• Education: Despite the impressive improvements, many problems plague the education system. Its quality is weak with a huge rural/urban gap and not relevant to market needs. Tertiary education and vocation studies have been largely neglected.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has mentioned in their factsheet that delay in implementation of development projects continues to constrain Bangladesh’s development. ADB has identified actions needed to improve several key areas of project implementation, specifically start-up delays, approval processes, procurement, and financial management. ADB has emphasized the need to design projects that are better prepared for implementation. This means projects that are simpler, taking into consideration capacity constraints, and including covenants that are realistic, focused, and properly sequenced.

Increasing efficiency of the labour market and cheap labour in the Bangladeshi Ready Made Garment (RMG) sector have always attracted foreign buyers. The RMG sector is expected to grow despite the global financial crisis of 2009. As China is finding it challenging to make textile and foot wear items at cheap price, due to rising labor costs, many foreign investors, are coming to Bangladesh to take advantage of the low labor cost. Local accessories are being made including zippers, buttons, labels, hooks, hangers, elastic bands, thread, backboards, butterfly pins, clips, collar stays, collarbones and cartons. The accessory market is dominated by multinational companies operating in Bangladesh, because in the majority of cases, garment buyers prefer accessories from them over the locally available items.

However, series of different alarming incidents in Bangladesh (Such as Tazreen Fashion, Rana Plaza, Standard Group, labor unrest about minimum wages, political unrest) have made the foreign investors concerned. Such deadly incidents from November 2012 through 2013 brought worker safety and labor violations in Bangladesh to world attention putting pressure on big global clothing brands and retailers to respond by using their economic weight to create change. Industrial accidents have revived concerns over compliance in labor standards and worker safety, putting Bangladesh’s competitiveness in ready-made garments (RMG) at risk. Noncompliance in worker safety is a collective failure of the manufacturers, the buyers, and the Government. Attention to low worker wages, poor working condition and the violation of workers’ rights has become more pronounced.