Public and private sector leaders of Bangladesh and Malaysia discussed the special relationship between the two nations, and the opportunities to leverage the socioeconomic complementarities that exist, at a virtual event held recently.
The event, titled “Showcase Bangladesh 2021: Bangladesh-Malaysia Investment Summit”, is a platform jointly organized by Standard Chartered and Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), said a press release.
The virtual forum showcased the partnership potential between Bangladesh and Malaysia and highlighted the emerging strategic opportunities in a shifting global landscape.
Delegates representing public and private sectors, policymakers, investors, bankers and the diplomatic communities of both nations were in attendance.
Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi attended as chief guest, while Salman Fazlur Rahman, private sector industry & investment adviser to the prime minister, was guest of honour.
Relationship between Malaysia and Bangladesh are characterized by a number of complementarities. It is time to take advantage of these complementarities and begin our respective journeys to become high income economies, said Munshi.
“Malaysia and Bangladesh have historically had extremely good relationships and I believe any kind of cooperation between the two countries is a win-win situation for both countries. As we ascend to the next level, we realize the need to pick up the pace," said Salman F Rahman.
“In term of the close economic relations, our investment in Bangladesh cumulates to more than $3 billion on various sectors like telecommunication, infrastructure education and so on. To make this already established relationship even stronger, I would suggest the consideration of tax incentives in the short run and to reduce trade barriers and implement FTA to help trade relations grow even stronger," said Haznah Md. Hashim, high commissioner of Malaysia to Bangladesh.
“We have been in Bangladesh for more than 20 years, I think that is in itself a testimony to our success story in the country. If you want to look at the reason behind this success, it was the collaboration between the government and us as a developer at the time in formulating a successful public private partnership that attracted private sector investment to serve the power sector’s requirement," Datuk Md Nor bin Ali, chief investment officer, Edra Energy.
“International investors have an excellent track record of operating in Bangladesh and are recognized as the leading taxpayers in sectors such as Telco, Insurance, Financial Sector, and FMCG. As both Bangladesh and Malaysia progress towards a common goal of becoming a high-income countries, there is a host of shared opportunities that are yet to be explored, in order to realize the full potential of the collaboration between our two economies," said Naser Ezaz Bijoy, CEO, Standard Chartered Bangladesh.
Standard Chartered and Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) formed a partnership in January 2021 to jointly promote Bangladesh as a preferred investment destination and work together to bring in targeted global investments to the country.
This webinar was the second initiative to be undertaken through this partnership.
The first event held under the auspices of this partnership was China-Bangladesh virtual investment summit, where nearly 300 Chinese investors and their representatives participated.