The high-powered 38-member Bangladesh business delegation – presently on visit India for “shopping investments and joint venture – offered open door invitation to Indian entrepreneurs to tap “huge” business opportunity for profits” in their land. The delegation leader Dr Syed Abdus Samad – Executive Chairman, Board of Investment (BOI), Bangladesh – opined “Given the commonalities Bangladesh and West Bengal share, the future of their trade and business relations is bright.” Hailing “Kolkata as a city where his heart lies”, Dr Samad urged West Bengal-based investors to take the advantage of existing investment-friendly opportunities in Bangladesh.
During their four-day visit to India, Bangladesh delegation had earlier interacted with the Indian captains of industry and business in Mumbai and Chennai and offered immense investment and business opportunities in Bangladesh. The members – who met captains of industry and business of eastern region of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII- ER)) in Kolkata today – highlighted Bangladesh as “undiscovered destination” of Asia for industrial investment and business prospect as their land “offered “a golden gate of opportunities”.
The CII-ER vice-president Sumit Majumder opined Bangladesh and India as a “winning combination” and went on to explain why Bangladesh is an exciting place to do business with and put capital in. He urged Indian companies to take advantage of the zero-duty exports facility India has offered to Bangladesh under the Least Developed Country initiative. “Moreover, Indian investors in Bangladesh can greatly benefit from Bangladesh’s duty-free access to India, EU, Canada and Japan.” He was happy to note that the country “has a very liberal FDI regime with an unrestricted exit policy.”
The Bangladesh deputy high commissioner in Kolkata, Ms Abida Islam scored an important point by saying that “while the volume of FDI across the globe has dropped by 18% in the past one year in the wake of the prevailing slowdown, there has been a 13% increase in FDI in Bangladesh in sectors such as telecom, healthcare, medical equipment. It’s a country that is eliciting confidence from across the globe. It is also a country that has posted on an average 6.5% GDP growth in the past three years mainly on the back of the industrial and services sectors”.
-With The Independent input
