Be our development partners, PM tells investors in S’pore

SINGAPORE, Mar 13 (Agencies): Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday invited the business community in Singapore to be Bangladesh's partners in its journey towards economic development as the country is now transforming.

"Bangladesh has a huge young, energetic and easily trainable workforce with competitive wages. It offers opportunities for duty- and quota-free access to the markets of the EU, Australia, Canada, India, Japan and New Zealand," she said.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the opening programme of the Bangladesh-Singapore Business Forum 2018, which was jointly organised by International Enterprise Singapore, Singapore Business Federation and Bangladesh Business Chamber of Singapore (BDCham) at Shangri-La Hotel here.

Sheikh Hasina announced to provide 500 acres of land more at a place, especially Economic Zone in Mirsarai, Chittagong for Singaporean businessmen.

Singaporean Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang, IE Singapore Acting CEO Kathy Lai and Singapore Business Federation Chairman SS Teo also spoke on the occasion.

Describing Bangladesh's success in the ready-made garment sector, Sheikh Hasina said the volume of textile export was almost US$ 30 billion in 2017, the second after China, and the country wants to increase the amount to US$ 50 billion by 2021.

Similarly, she said, pharmaceutical items of Bangladesh are now being exported to 120 countries, including the USA and the EU, after meeting 97 percent of domestic demands. "Bangladesh is emerging fast as a major global hub for high quality, low-cost generic medicines," she said.

The Prime Minister said Bangladesh's knowledge industry, information and communication technology (ICT) and related industry are also expanding rapidly. "Shipbuilding is yet another promising industry in Bangladesh. Our builders have drawn global attention by making world-class light to medium-sized ocean-going vessels," she said.

She also informed the Singaporean business leaders that Bangladesh is now establishing 100 'Special Economic Zones (SEZs)' in different parts of the country as part of its initiative to accelerate industrialisation.

"We're also developing several hi-tech parks in Bangladesh for IT industries with foreign investment. We've a target to export US$ 5.0 billion worth of IT goods and services by 2021," she said.

From a humble subsistence agriculture-based economy, Bangladesh is shifting towards a modern, resilient and diversified one, the Prime Minister said, adding, "The manufacturing sectors now occupy four-fifth of our GDP."

She cited the prediction of Price Waterhouse Cooper in 2017 of Bangladesh as one of the three fastest growing economies globally over the next three decades with two other countries being India and Vietnam.

Leading UK Daily Financial Times in its August 08, 2017 issue stated that Bangladesh has achieved an economic miracle in the past 20 years, Hasina said. "We expect half of our population to become urbanised consumers by 2030 creating a large market."