It is extremely distressing to learn that, according to data from Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), both local and foreign investment registration and proposals fell nearly 10% last year.
Suffice to say, this is a problem that must be nipped in the bud -- the authorities must not, under any circumstances, allow this to become a trend.
While reduced investment would be worrisome for any economy, it is especially so for a growing one such as Bangladesh, one which is understandably banking on a growth in investment -- rather than a reduction -- to propel its development.
Therefore, it is extremely important to identify just what the underlying problems have been that have contributed to Bangladesh experiencing this negative growth in investment proposals.
To that end, it is perhaps unsurprising that the chief culprits for this problem are the poor state of credit in our country, inadequate and poor service quality, and not enough policy support to the investors -- all of which ultimately come together to determine the poor state of our ease of doing business.
This newspaper has previously editorialized numerous times on the importance of improving our ease of doing business -- Bangladesh simply cannot afford to, as per its current plans, to allow this to become a deterrent to our growth.
However, it is indeed unfortunate that we are now beginning to witness the effects of having an unfavourable business climate.
The onus is now on the authorities and policy-makers to implement the right strategies to reverse this negative outlook on investment. Bangladesh has come too far in its development journey, and we cannot let such issues stop us from reaching our potential.