Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged foreign investors to take advantage of the country’s open and favourable regulatory regime, skilled workforce, and strategic location in Asia to expand their businesses, reports UNB.
“The government of Bangladesh is committed to stay on its upward course to attract FDI and maintain investment-friendly environment for our economic development… select Bangladesh for making investment,” she said.
Prime Minister was inaugurating the day-long International Investment Forum-2014, organised by the Board of Investment (BoI) at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.
She along with the guests at the dais also launched the Investment Facilitation and Regulatory Guidebooks by BoI and BUILD.
Organised by the BoI, a total of 273 investors from 21 countries, including Bangladesh, attended the daylong seminar aiming to attract local and foreign investment.
Sheikh Hasina said the traditional trade and investment paradigms are shifting with a view to accumulating higher degree of south-south cooperation.
“A dynamic private sector can take advantage of this change, with the support of their respective governments, to ensure a robust and sustainable economic growth.”
Bangladesh offers the most liberal FDI regime in South Asia, allowing for 100% foreign equity, unrestricted remittance policy, and repatriation of profits and incomes, technical assistance fee and royalty fee, she said.
She listed various concrete steps taken by her government and substantial reform initiatives in recent years to address issues raised by the business community and showing Bangladesh’s commitment to tackle major investment constraints.
The government has so far finalised the setting up of five economic zones while steps have been taken to establish another 13 economic zones, she said.
She said the existing eight EPZs have so far attracted $3.2bn while the present government is committed to expanding the future potential for private investment zones, taking huge strides in the “Digital Bangladesh” process such as simplifying the investors services including entry process through online systems for registration of investment projects, companies registration, TIN, land, intellectual properties (patent, design, trademarks).
Prime Minister said the Bay of Bengal Growth Triangle can help trigger economic breakthroughs with an increase in trade and investments amongst the South and East Asian neighbours, as well as with China and Japan.
“Our interests are directly linked with the sea. The major obstacle till recently was the unresolved issue of maritime boundary with India and Myanmar. My initiatives on this have now resulted in the delimitation of boundaries with our neighbors who have got its rightful share in the Bay of Bengal,” she said.
“Now Bangladesh can explore natural resources up to 354 nautical miles from the coast lines, the blue economy has opened up of immense possibilities of mobilising sea resources, which are boundless, the government has already started working with some of these major economies, building strategic relationships and setting up high-level government teams to work together to develop regional value chains.”
“This is the way to the future and most major economies have benefited from integrated production bases and collaborative growth models. Asian countries need to catch up,” she added.
Hasina said South Asia remains one of the least integrated regions in the world with almost a quarter of the world’s population, the region accounts for only 2% of the world’s FDI. Compared to the global average of $643, the region attracts less than $20 of FDI per capita.
“Intra-regional FDI is even less significant, amounting to an average of about $300m per year. It thus accounts for just about 1% of overall investment into the region.”