Foreign direct investment in Bangladesh increased by 24 per cent to US$ 1,599 million in 2013 compared with US$ 1,293 million in the previous year, according to the world investment report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Board of Investment on Tuesday unveiled the report at a press conference presided over by its chairman MA Samad at its office.The country, however, made 9 per cent growth in equity investment, referred as fresh FDI, the growth rate is relatively lower than the reinvested earnings and intra-company loans, the report showed.
Textiles and Wearing sector attained the lion’s share of the total FDI in 2013 as the foreign entities have invested US$ 422 million in the sector.
FDIs in Banking and Telecommunication sectors followed the chart with US$ 327 million and US$ 324 million FDIs respectively.
Overseas investment in the Power, Gas and Petroleum was only US$ 99 million in the previous year while it was US$ 238 million and US$ 127 million in the years 2011 and 2012.
Speaking on the occasion, advisor to the Prime Minister, Towfique-e-Elahi Chowdhury, said, ‘We are expecting to get 50 per cent growth in the next year…. the amount could be US$ 2-2.50 billion.’
Towfique also said that the government is trying to explore alternative sources of energy to cope with the increased demand of energy.
The country has the potential to get huge amount of FDIs in the coming days, if the government could ensure favourable atmosphere for the investors with adequate electricity, said Privatisation Commission member Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan.
As per the WIR report, Bangladesh stands third among the South Asian countries in terms of FDI inflow.
Bangladesh has lost the first position among the South Asian countries, in terms of growth rate, while Pakistan stands first with 52 per cent year on year growth.
The UNCTAD report also showed that the global FDI inflows rose 9 per cent to US$ 1.45 trillion in 2013 after a slump in 2012, Jahangirnagar University economics department professor M Ismail Hossain said while presenting the WIR report.
UNCTAD predicted that the global FDI flows may increase slowly to US$ 1.6 trillion in 2014, US$ 1.8 trillion in 2016 with larger increases in developed countries, he said.
FDI grew 9 per cent in developed economies to US$ 566 billion comprising 39 per cent of global flows, while it increased to US$ 778 billion in the developing countries comprising 54 per cent of the global flows, Ismail said.
-With New Age input
