Dhaka eyes FDI, manpower export as ties with GCC warming

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Nizam Ahmed
Bangladesh is in the process of strengthening ties with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to draw foreign direct investment (FDI) from there and boost manpower export to those countries, officials said in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Following intense diplomatic efforts, Bangladesh has already received proposals from investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Oman for making sizeable investments in the country's energy, infrastructure and tourism sectors.
The UAE has offered to invest in four projects in the shipping sector. Those projects include setting up a deep-sea port at Sonadia near Cox's Bazar at an estimated cost of $8.6 billion, officials at the Bangladesh Board of Investment (BOI) said.
The other projects are: the New Mooring Container Terminal in Chittagong, Inland Container Depot with railway connectivity in Dhaka and a new container depot at the Mongla port.
The UAE agreed to consider proposed investments in the infrastructure sector in Bangladesh, following a request from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her visit to Dubai in 2011.
Another GCC country, Qatar, has expressed its intention to invest some $4.0 billion to set up a 1,000 megawatt (mw) liquefied-natural-gas-based power plant and to upgrade the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, the relevant BOI officials said.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni is scheduled to visit Bahrain in January to sign important agreements to help attract investments from there.
Oman has also assured Bangladesh of further widening of its job market for Bangladeshi expatriate workers and has invited Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Khandker Mosharraf Hossain to visit Muscat next month.
Bangladesh and Oman are likely to sign deals to recruit workers from Bangladesh and engage them in employment in Oman at the initiative of the government.
The monthly recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in Oman fell to around 11,000 plus in July this year from its highest 19,100 in January.
Currently, there are some 500,000 more Bangladeshi workers in Oman, according to a data of the ministry of expatriates welfare and overseas employment (MEWOE).
The deal with Oman is likely to be similar to the one signed recently with the government of Malaysia, under which some 30,000 workers for plantation, construction, agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors will initially be recruited.
The first batch of Bangladesh workers will start reaching Malaysia in February under the new deal, said officials at the MEWOE.
The Sultanate of Oman has also decided to open a permanent embassy in Dhaka within next few months with a view to strengthening bilateral business transactions and recruiting more manpower from Bangladesh.
Some 400,000 Bangladeshis have been employed in Oman since 2010 and out of them, 135,000 got employment there in 2011. The expatriate Bangladeshi workers in Oman include 450 medical doctors.
Ruler of Oman Sultan Qaboos bin Said has issued a royal decree in September to establish an Oman embassy in Bangladesh.
Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni visited Oman recently.
Bangladesh, according to relevant sources, can offer a basket of products, being competitive both in terms of price and quality to the GCC countries. Such products include garments and knitwear, tea, leather and leather products, ceramics and tableware, handicrafts, jute and jute products, toiletries and cosmetics, vegetables, and pharmaceuticals etc.
An in return, Bangladesh can procure mineral fuel, petroleum products, organic chemicals and chemical products, base metal products etc. from the region, the sources added.
Among the foreign investors in Bangladesh, those from South Korea, Singapore, the UAE, the UK, the USA, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, the KSA and the Netherlands are now the major ones, making the highest level of investments in the country, according to the updated BoI data.
The FDI in Bangladesh rose by 24.42 per cent to a record US$1.14 billion in 2011 from $913.32 million in 2010, the BoI data showed.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh earns some $12 billion a year from its 8.0 million expatriate workers employed in different countries.
The major countries where Bangladeshi overseas workforce are now concentrated, are: the K.S.A, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Iraq, Libya, Bahrain, Oman, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore, Brunei, Laos, Mauritius, Spain and Lebanon.