PM urges more foreign investment
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at a meeting with the members of Pan Asian- American Chamber of Commerce in New York on Sunday.Photo: PID
Putting bounteous business bonanza on stake, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina invited foreign investors to make investment in Bangladesh in potential sectors like banking, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, agro-based industries and so.
She made the call at a business meet dubbed 'Investment Summit Bangladesh 2009' at Hotel Grand Hyatt in this US city on Sunday afternoon as part of the PM's busy schedules on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session she addressed on September 26.
Businessmen from the Pan Asian-American Chamber of Commerce were present at the meeting where they exchanged views with the Prime Minister about the investment-friendly environment prevailing now in Bangladesh.
Prime Minister's son, Sajib Wajed Joy, was also present at the summit meet on investment where rewarding business offers from the head of government were aplenty.
“In today's globalised world, the farsighted and wise are taking immediate advantage of opportunities for expanding their businesses.
Surely, such opportunities exist today for investors in Bangladesh,” she told the gathering.
Indeed, she said, immense opportunities do exist for new investments in capital market, banking, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, agro-based industries, textiles, outsourcing, manpower, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, biotechnology, light engineering, shipbuilding, tourism, information technology, education, among others.
Sheikh Hasina mentioned that her government wants to turn Bangladesh into a middle-income country by 2021 for which foreign investment is a significant component.
To attract the foreign investors, fortunately, several conditions already exist in Bangladesh's favour-a homogenous secular society, progressive democracy, market-oriented economy, low-cost labour, entrepreneurial ethos of the workforce, strategic geographic location accessible to international land and air routes and a large domestic consumer market of 160 million, the Prime Minister told her business audience.
“Complementing these favorable factors is our government's incentives of zero duty for export-oriented industry, liberal tax holidays, easy repatriation of profit, and even capital, in the event of closures.”
The Prime Minister noted that such factors prompted Goldman Sachs to include Bangladesh in its Next 11--after Brazil, Russian Federation, India and China--as one holding huge potential.
The government has initiated efforts for making the Board of Investment effective and efficient.
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