Under the charismatic and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh continues to attract foreign investment for which the stage is now almost set for more such gigantic development.
Already emerging as the fastest developing country in South Asia setting record in achieving GDP growth, the new Asian Tiger continues to pursue for the next stage inviting huge foreign investment.
Spearheaded by a comprehensive policy for trade, economic and technology exchange cooperation, Bangladesh sees huge opportunities of foreign investment in the years to come.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s announcement on the ‘Bangladesh on Development Highway: the time is ours,’ continued encouraging the foreign countries to invest in the country.
Economists, however, say that to seize the opportunities of attracting foreign investors the existing infrastructure will have to be developed and further modernized, remove bureaucratic tangles and irregularities in order to make investment process far easier than before.
Many of the investors see Bangladesh as a 'market’ of over 30 million middle- and affluent-class people and a ‘development miracle’.
“The latest development in world’s political and financial arena has created a huge opportunity for Bangladesh to grab the FDI. We need a comprehensive policy in order to further increase FDI,” suggested an economist.
“The country is speeding up its economic reform processes to turn it into a developed country. And the government has outlined series of events aimed at attracting investors. But the country needs to expand and strengthen trade relations with other foreign countries,” he continued as saying.
Zunaid Ahmed Palak, State Minister for ICT said, "Negotiations with a Chinese company called Orix Biotic have come a long way. They have responded positively to our investment in the Bangabandhu Hi-Tech Park in Kaliakoir. We hope they will invest there very soon.”
He said Bangladesh is increasing its investment in the IT sector to expand digital Bangladesh.
“There is a huge potential in this sector,” he said adding that 10 years ago only 57 lakh people in the country used the internet and now about 100 million people have come under the Internet use network.
As a result, the state minister thinks that it is possible to attract foreign investment through the spread of information technology.
Palak mentioned, “It is necessary to give approval to the ICT sector projects by identifying them as priority sector.”
“On the other hand, the government is establishing 100 special economic zones across the country to attract foreign investment, it needs to accelerate the work,” he said.
It is learnt that separate economic zones are being set up for Japan, India and a few other countries.
Bangladesh Economic Zone Authority (BEZA) hopes that the investment of the countries concerned will come in these zones.
Officials of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) said Bangladesh is making every effort to attract Japanese investment.
That is why it is establishing an economic zone for the Japanese, for which 500 acres of land have been acquired.
The region is also being developed by Sumitomo Corporation of Japan. The Japanese economic zone will be suitable for factories by 2021. It is known that there are about 270 Japanese companies in Bangladesh now.
Experts said Bangladesh has huge opportunities to get foreign investment, but the government should give more emphasis on improving ease of doing business as well as create business-friendly environment.
On the other hand, a leather industrial city has been set up in Savar for a long time, but the central effluent treatment plant or CETP there is not functioning properly.
As a result, foreign investment in the leather industry is not coming as expected. Similar situation is prevailing in other sectors as well.
Although the ready-made garment sector has sustained Bangladesh's export trade, there are various crises in this sector as well.
Workers protest almost all the time with workers' dissatisfaction and irregularities in salaries and allowances. Experts say such a situation also discourages foreign investment.
A huge foreign investment prospects are waiting for Bangladesh as relations between US and China deteriorated further over the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, they added.
Market analysts said the government needs to take effective steps to seize this opportunity for stimulating the country’s economy following the corona crisis.
Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority, Paban Chowdhury told Bangladesh Post that no Japanese company has left China yet.
“However, they have announced the withdrawal. We hope Japanese companies will come here too,” he added.
“Bangladesh is making all kinds of preparations to attract foreign investment,” he mentioned.
We are removing the uncertainty of land, ports and other infrastructure, he informed.
Paban Chowdhury said that many investors from China, Japan and European countries have expressed their eagerness to invest in our economic zones which proves that Bangladesh has become a lucrative place for foreign investors.
He said, “We have been preparing our new economic zones and investors are waiting to invest. The foreign investment will increase in a great extent once we prepared these zones.”
Former World Bank lead economist Dr Zahid Hossain said, “Bangladesh needs to remove policy complexity and infrastructure crisis to attract foreign investment.”
The country is missing huge opportunities of FDI, he mentioned.
“We need to give clear concept to foreign investors how they will get benefit to invest here through diplomatic channel as many foreign investors have no clear concept,” he pointed out.
