Fix barriers to foreign investment

Although Bangladesh has received record multi-billion foreign investments from select countries, its efforts to make the country a foreign investment destination remain hamstrung by infrastructure and bureaucratic bottlenecks. There is no reason why the country should be lagging behind because we have what many countries do not—an abundant pool of surplus labour.

However, as pointed out by the president of Bangladesh-German Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BGCCI) at the event "Emerging Bangladesh" recently, our workforce remains ineffective because of a lack of policy support to develop the vocational education system. Without enough skilled labour, the country simply will not be able to attract enough foreign direct investment (FDI).

We really need to take a hard look at what is happening in the Asian region. The fact that Vietnam is able to attract massive FDI every year is due to the fact that the country is taking giant steps in infrastructure development in record time. Coupled with a well-educated labour force, it is Vietnam that is getting the lion's share of FDI. That country's leadership has moved heaven and earth to make foreign investors welcome, not just by meeting infrastructure needs, but also by lessening the time it takes to get paperwork done.

We are yet to get over our red-tape mentality. Foreign companies interested in Bangladesh read global indices about the ease of doing business where Bangladesh consistently lags behind and we simply can't seem to get our act together on this issue. Until we do something about that, Bangladesh will keep losing out to other competing countries in the region.