It also advocated rigorous screening of all FDI proposals in order to discourage those who do not commit to bring latest technology.

"Bangladesh's liberal FDI policy has done a little to bring new technology in the country. Bulks of the FDIs are in the services sectors, which do not provide much opportunity to promote technological capacities of local firms," remarked the Chamber News, a monthly publication of the MCCI, in its August issue referring to the UNCTAD LDC Report 2007.

The UNCTAD report was revealed on July 20 where Bangladesh ranked 5th in attracting FDI among the 50 LDCs in value term but in term of per capita income Bangladesh ranked 34.

The Chamber News in its editorial pointed out that about 81 percent of all FDI went to services sector and the other 19 percent went to manufacturing sector in 2005-2006.

Within the services sector, 44 percent went to telecommunications sector, 30 percent to gas exploration sector, 21 percent to banking sector, 4 percent to power generation sector and 1 percent to insurance sector.

More budgetary allocation for science and technology is needed, the metropolitan chamber recommended, lamenting that historically, such allocation in the country has been very low.

The MCCI publication in its editorial also sought intensification in research efforts at the BCSIR (Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) in areas of manufacturing and at various agricultural and related research centres for the development of crop and horticulture.

It asked the government to pursue donor agencies for enhancing aid for research and development.

Such aid may be provided under the Aid for Trade programme of the World Trade Organization (WTO), it suggested.

The Chamber News suggested that the government should undertake appropriate legislation to take advantage of the exemption from implementing the general provisions of the TRIPS Agreement until 2013 and the further extension until 2016 for implementing TRIPS provisions on patents on pharmaceutical products and related processes for the LDCs.

The world's 50 poorest countries, categorised by the United Nations as 'least developed' (LDCs) and inhabited by 767 million people, face the risk of increasing marginalization, said the UNCTAD report.

Quoting the report, the Chamber News said the LDCs are lagging far behind the rest of the world regarding the acquisition of knowledge and technology, which is necessary to achieve sustained economic growth and reduce poverty.

It further referred to the report that pointed to the fact that most of the LDCs remain locked into low value-added commodity production and low-skill manufacturing.