Bangladesh a ‘big’ market: FICCI

Bangladesh a ‘big’ market: FICCI


FE Report

The head of foreign chamber Sunday urged overseas investors to invest in Bangladesh, banking on its "big market" and resilient economy.

"Bangladesh is quite a big market. Even if 10 per cent of its population is taken into consideration, it is a substantial market for any product," AM Hamim Rahmatullah, president of Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said.

"The economic fundamentals are strong and many of the indices of economic growth are becoming less volatile over time. Exports are up, remittances from abroad are growing, foreign exchange reserves are comfortable and inflation is within control," he added.

He said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has suggested Bangladesh economy has become the 48th largest in the world with the size of 225 billion dollars on purchasing power parity (PPP) basis.

He said that investment and trade regimes of the country were "highly favourable" to attract foreign investors compared to other countries in South Asia.

Macro-economic fundamentals are sound and incentive package for investment in general and foreign direct investment in particular is attractive for the investors, he added.

He also said that Bangladesh had recently received sovereign credit rating from Moody's Investors Services and Standard and Poor's (S&P), which has brought a new dimension to Bangladesh's economic outlook.

"Bangladesh needs huge investment every year in almost all the sectors of its economy. This, currently, can not be met from domestic resources. In the backdrop of declining official development assistance (ODA), the only alternative left is foreign direct investment (FDI)," he told the business audience.

He called upon prospective Chinese investors to exploit the investment opportunities available in Bangladesh.

Chinese ambassador Zhang Xianyi said Bangladesh is becoming a fast-growing economy in South Asia.

Last year, bilateral trade between China and Bangladesh amounted to 6.2 billion dollars, up 82 per cent on the previous year. At the same period, Bangladesh's exports to China totaled 230 million dollars.