A huge foreign investment prospects are waiting for Bangladesh as relations between US and China deteriorated further over the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.
Market analysts said the government needs to take effective steps to seize this opportunity for stimulating the country’s economy following the corona crisis.
The government, in the meantime, has prepared a prediction report on the impact of the global corona situation on the country's economy, a senior official of Finance Ministry said.
“The report has been prepared jointly by the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of External Affairs and several other concerned ministries and departments,” he said adding that the Prime Minister's Office has led the initiative.
A recent government monitoring report said the coronavirus epidemic is life threatening on one side, huge opportunities are waiting on the other side.
In the context of the post-corona changing world, huge amount of foreign investment can come to Bangladesh, it mentioned.
According to the report, the sudden onset of corona in the country may last for many years. Its adverse effects on the economy will remain for a long time.
However, various countries, including Japan, Germany and the United States, are planning to withdraw their investments from China.
In order to encourage these countries, the government is going to start G2G (Government to Government) discussions with different countries to invest directly in Bangladesh.
Asked about the matter, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said, “Keeping this in mind, we have already started talks with different countries on these issues. We have asked our traders to talk to the companies that are thinking of relocating from China.”
"We have compiled a list of various business organizations and informed them that you are talking to companies that want to leave China," he said.
“Moreover, we have given this information to the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA),” he said adding, “We want special initiatives to be taken privately.”
“Let them know, there are a lot of opportunities to invest in Bangladesh. We have 100 economic zones, 26 high-tech parks. The United States, Japan and other countries can invest in these places,” Momen mentioned.
"The United States and Japan can invest in one economic zone at a time and set up their own factories," he said.
“We have informed these countries that Bangladesh is a trade friendly country. At present the government is stable. The biggest advantage is that dividends can be easily taken away by investing in Bangladesh as compared to the neighboring countries,” he informed.
“So, the investment situation in our country is very good, I am informing them about this,” he added.
In this regard, Sirajul Islam, Executive Chairman of BIDA said, “The Japanese government has announced $2 billion package to repatriate Japanese companies to China. The country has also announced a $25 billion incentive to move Japanese factories from China to Southeast Asia,” he said adding that the trade war between the United States and China could lead to the demise of many US companies.
"Recently, 28 US companies have moved to Indonesia," he said.
“We are sure that such an event could happen. As we have already seen, several American and Japanese companies are trying to go to India. The Indian government is trying to take this opportunity,” Islam said.
“We need to take political initiative. The foreign minister has already taken initiative in this regard,” he informed.
“We are going to offer several incentives to different countries to invest in Bangladesh,” he said.
