Foreign investment proposals in slow lane

Foreign investors and their joint ventures with local companies have proposed to invest $1 billion in Bangladesh in the first 11 months of the outgoing fiscal year.

The proposed amount is far below than the previous full fiscal year's amount of $2.38 billion.

The decline in proposed foreign direct investment, which is in keeping with the downward trend since fiscal 2011-12, puts a damper to the government's hopes of bringing in more overseas investors to the country.

The number of registered foreign and joint venture investment proposals in the July-May period in fiscal 2014-15 stood at 105, according to the Board of Investment. Once implemented, they would create 15,460 jobs.

The highest number of proposals came in the services sector: the investors plan to set up 26 ventures involving $118.5 million.

It was followed by the engineering sector, which received 24 proposals with investment plans for $361.35 million.

Agro-based industries received proposals worth $130.73 million, chemical sector $162.16 million, tannery and leather sector $151.52 million and textile $60.66 million, according to BoI.

The country received $1.526 billion in foreign direct investment in 2014, down 4.5 percent from the previous year, said the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development last week.    

Meanwhile, the local companies might have started to shake off their political uncertainty-induced jitters when it comes to making investment decisions. 

Local investment proposals soared in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, reversing the negative trend of the last three years.

Some 1,184 projects involving $10.72 billion were proposed. The projects would create jobs for 186,719 people, according to BoI.

This is the highest amount of proposed investment by local investors since fiscal 2005-06, when the amount stood at $2.73 billion. 

In fiscal 2013-14, the local investors promised to invest $6.392 billion in 1,302 projects.