Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday urged foreign investors to take advantage offered by Bangladesh to expand their businesses. ‘The government of Bangladesh is committed to stay on its upward course to attract FDI and maintain investment-friendly environment for our economic development,’ she said. The prime minister was inaugurating International Investment Forum-2014, organised by the Board of Investment at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.
Welcoming the investors to be part in making Bangladesh’s dynamic and growing economy, Hasina said, ‘Please find out for yourselves what Bangladesh can offer’.
‘We hope Bangladesh’s economic progress will be a continuous process and we can build on the success of this forum to generate further interest in improving trade and investment in the region.’
BoI organised the Forum attended by about 273 local and foreign investors from about twenty-one countries, aimed at attracting investment in potential sectors by offering investment opportunities and incentives by the government.
Finance minister AMA Muhith, Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, France-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry president and Lafarge Surma Cement chief executive officer Tarek Ahmed, and secretary of the Prime Minister Office Abul Kalam Azad also spoke on the occasion while BoI executive chairman SA Samad was in the chair.
Hasina said despite global recession and economic meltdown emerging Asian countries achieved tremendous economic growth over the last two decades. Bangladesh also attained average 6.2 per cent growth over the last five years, she said.
‘Many of our neighbouring countries are being graduated from least developed country to developing ones. Sustainable local and foreign investment, regional trade and steps taken for attracting private investment have played crucial role in the economic progress.’
Liberal investment policy has created opportunities for the countries to participate in the regional production process in coherent manner, she said. Terming South Asia as the least integrated region in the world, she said though the region was home of one-fourth population of the world, its total foreign investment was only 2 per cent of the total global investment.
Per capita global investment is $643 while it’s only $20 in this region, Hasina said. Average inter-regional foreign investment in South Asia is only $300 million which is one per cent of total investment of the region, she said.
Hasina said South Asia had a huge market potential for investors with middle group people whose income capacity was rising gradually. Size of its internal market is expanding due to increase of the demands of local people, she said. ‘Investment is getting lucrative as export is going up in multiple sectors.’
The prime minister said in recent years, her government had attached importance on expansion of trade relation based on regional cooperation. Regional cooperation paved ways for infrastructure development, expansion of trade and market access.
Other South Asian nations, like Bangladesh, are taking lesson from the global development concepts and came forward for economic reform for accelerating their growth, she said.
Hasina said she gave special importance to Bay of Bengal triangular growth. This growth might act as catalyst to enhance our trade and investment among the South and East Asian nation including China and Japan, she said.
Saying that Bangladesh’s trade prospect is directly related to the water territory, the prime minister noted that Bangladesh’s maritime territory with India and Myanmar without demarcation was a big development barrier for the country. ‘Now we have found a friendly solution of the problem and every country has got their legitimate share of the ocean.’
The prime minister unwrapped some publications of the BoI on the occasion.
-With New Age input
