A country ready and hungry for investment

Standard Chartered Bangladesh and City Bank sponsored a daylong conference in Hong Kong  on April 26  to highlight Bangladesh's macroeconomic fundamentals, growth sectors, the investment outlook and the associated challenges. Representatives from prominent global financial firms attended the event styled “Bangladesh Investment Summit, Asia”. FinanceAsia, a leading financial journal in the Asia and the Pacific, in association with the AsianInvestor, a magazine focused on financial services in the region, organised the event, which was supported by the Board of Investment of Bangladesh. Sarwar A Chowdhury reports. 

Bangladesh holds all the key elements to be the most lucrative destination for foreign investors in the Asia Pacific region as China and other rising economies are becoming costlier for doing business.

Foreign investors can take advantage of the country's favourable atmosphere, macroeconomic stability, demographic dividends and the expanding domestic market, policymakers and private sector leaders said at the summit.

“Never before, Bangladesh was so well prepared to absorb talent, technology and investment from outside. Never before the country was so investment hungry as it is today,” Finance Minister AMA Muhith said in his keynote speech at the summit, which was the fourth of its kind.

Muhith went on to assure the prospective investors that the environment for doing business will only get better in the coming days.

“We are open to you, to your ideas, innovations and enterprises,” he said, adding that the attitude is making the country dream of becoming a developed country by 2041.

Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, the prime minister's adviser on power, energy and mineral resources, said: “Bangladesh is an unfolding story. Join us. We will make money, you will make money.”

Citing the robust growth in power generation over the last seven years, he stressed the need to conserve power for sustainable development.

“Still there are unlimited opportunities for investment in the power sector, as we will need to generate some 46,000MW by 2041 with $15 billion worth of investment,” he added.

Ajay Kanwal, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Bank for the Asean and South Asia region, said Bangladesh has a very strong and resilient economy and has been maintaining progressive growth since its independence.

“So, it's a lucrative investment destination,” he said, adding that the key factors that can attract foreign investors are there: stable GDP growth, steady currency and a stable government for many years.

For a foreign investor, good returns, capital safety and dividend or capital repatriation are the three major issues.

“From our experience in Bangladesh as a foreign investor, we can say that all the three conditions are met,” he added.

Sohail RK Hussain, managing director of City Bank, highlighted Bangladesh's potential, citing the ratings from agencies such as Fitch, Moody's and others.

Hussain mentioned fuel and energy, labour-intensive industries and agro-processing sectors as the high growth opportunities.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT, said Bangladesh had previously been featured as a disaster story.

Over the last few years, the image has changed thanks to the steady growth of over 6 percent, demographic dividends and the implementation of the Digital Bangladesh vision.

“ICT is a potential area to invest in and now is the best time to do so,” he said, while referring to the government's plan to set up 12 hi-tech industrial parks around the country where investors would get complete repatriation and tax benefits.

Referring to different international agencies' forecasts on Bangladesh's economy, Shahriar Alam, state minister for foreign affairs, said: “Bangladesh is clearly the preferred next stop for the sourcing caravan.”

Biru Paksha Paul, chief economist of Bangladesh Bank, delivered a presentation on monetary policy.