More foreign investment needed to offset pandemic fallouts

Bangladesh needs to give utmost importance to attracting foreign investments to foster economic growth and create more jobs, experts said yesterday.

The mobilisation of foreign investment would also help the country tackle the potential fallout of the fourth industrial revolution during the pandemic, they said.

Their remarks came at an event marking a partnership between LightCastle Partners, a Dhaka-based consultancy, and the Netherlands-based Larive International.

The partnership was formally announced at a webinar attended by the senior representatives from the development, private and public sectors.

Larive International is a network of independent business development advisory firms in 24 high-growth markets throughout Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Under the agreement, LightCastle will become the exclusive member of the Larive Group in Bangladesh, according to a press release.

Both the organisations will jointly provide professional services like business intelligence, market entry and growth strategy, M&A advisory and post-investment services for interested investors in Bangladesh.

"As Bangladesh economy surges, within global supply and value chains, the Dutch business sees significant scope to partner with Bangladeshi peers," said M Riaz Hamidullah, Bangladesh's ambassador to the Netherlands.

"Larive-LightCastle tie-up thus stands to complement our efforts and contribute to uplifting Bangladesh's standing and credential amongst international investors and facilitate market entry process for the potential Dutch investors."

Davinia Lamme, managing director of Larive International, expressed her optimism about the strategic partnership with LightCastle.

"By joining forces with the LightCastle team, we are well-positioned to support our client base in this fast-growing market," she said.

"Having already worked with Larive on several projects in Bangladesh, we are delighted to formalise our alliance," said Bijon Islam, CEO of LightCastle.

"We are thrilled about the partnership and look forward to serving an increasing number of foreign investors in Bangladesh."

Ivdad Ahmed Khan Mojlish, managing director of LightCastle; Matthias Brienen, a director of Larive International, also spoke at the event, which was organised by LightCastle Partners.

 Zahedul Amin, director for consulting services at LightCastle, presented a keynote paper.

Both the organisations have agreed to co-organise a series of public events in the near future for promoting investment opportunities in Bangladesh for international investors.