South Korea wants to put a bulk of its investment in Bangladesh’s Information Technology (IT) sector as it holds out an ample opportunity for foreign investors.
South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Ahn Seong-doo said this at a view exchange meeting with Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed at the later office in the capital yesterday.
“Bangladesh is a close business partner of South Korea and we have investment here. We want to inject more fund especially in IT sector,” said Ahn Seong-doo.
“Recently, we arranged a seminar on Prospect of Investment in Bangladesh which was participated in by 80 organisations from Bangladesh and 30 from Korea to discuss the investment opportunity,” he said.
The South Korean entrepreneurs are very eager to make joint investmet in the IT sector, Ahn adds.
“South Korea showed its keen interest to increase investment and trade in Bangladesh. To reduce trade deficit between the two countries, South Korea is providing duty-free market access of 4,800 products and Bangladesh will enjoy 90% duty-free export facilities of its total export, said Tofail.
Korea has a lot of investments in Dhaka and Chittagong Export Processing Zones, he said, adding that there are 22 factories in operation in Chittagong EPZ that employed over 55,000 workers.
It is high time foreign investors made their investment in Bangladesh as the government is offering lots of incentives for foreign investors and Koerea can benefit from investment here, said the commerce minister.
If CEPZ problems are resolved, Bangladesh will be the beneficiary as some big companies like Samsung and leather manufacturers will make investment here, he mentioned.
In the last fiscal year, Bangladesh earned $174 million, exporting leather goods, RMG products, jute goods and frozen foods to South Korea. It imported products worth $1.2billion.
Senior Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamoon was, among others, present at the meeting.
