A two-day Bangladesh Investment and Policy Summit 2016 will begin from January 24 in the city to showcase private sector investment opportunities in Bangladesh for both domestic and international investors.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the summit at the Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel, hosted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Board of Investment, BUILD (Business Initiative Leading Development) and The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI).
The event will also deliberate towards fostering enabling policies for private sector growth and reducing gaps among policies for a coordinated, consistent and cohesive private sector development policy regime.
This was disclosed yesterday at the eighth Private Sector Development Policy Coordination Committee (PSDPCC) meeting at the PMO, chaired by the Principal Secretary Md. Abul Kalam Azad, according to a BUILD statement.
The inaugural day will focus on investment opportunities and will have both plenary and parallel business sessions and the concluding day will focus on policies for investments and contain one plenary, two business sessions, one country session and closing ceremony.
At the meeting, entrepreneurs have recommended easing cost of doing business by reducing interest rates on Bank loans and rationalising policies for the development of private sector, which is driving force of the economic growth.
The recommendations included the need for CSR policy simplification for banks, manufacturing of boilers in Bangladesh, financing policies for women entrepreneurs and rationalisation of interest rates. It also floated an idea of setting up an economic zone for women entrepreneurs.
The principal secretary endorsed all recommendations placed at the meeting and advised all secretaries and other related bodies to collaborate with BUILD and review each of the proposals further.
BUILD Chairman Asif Ibrahim highlighted the need for greater funding in the form of CSR for research activities. This would enable sustainability of research based policy reform initiatives carried out by the private sector dialogue platform BUILD to be further strengthened to work for private sector development, he said.
FBCCI President Abdul Matlub Ahmed appreciated PMO for simplifying all the policy issues for the private sector development and suggested that the private industry should come forward and have self certification.
