Domestic investment proposals up, FDI down

FE Team | Published: June 30, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The country's textile sector attracted the highest number of domestic investment proposals while the services sector drew more such initiatives under foreign and joint-venture in the outgoing fiscal.
According to the Bangladesh Economic Survey 2007 report, among the total investment proposals registered with the Board of Investment (BoI), 70.23 per cent came from the domestic investors for the textile sector in fiscal 2006-07.
Some 85.65 per cent of the proposals made by the foreign investors was for the services sector in Bangladesh during the first nine months of the fiscal.
The survey report said that February of fiscal 2006-07, a total of 1386 domestic investment proposals worth Tk 158.53 billion was registered with the BoI, which was 37.7 per cent higher compared to the same period of the last fiscal.
On the other hand, the foreign investors registered 130 investment proposals worth Tk 93.85 billion with the BoI from July '06 to March '07 period.
Among the domestic investment proposals, the chemical sector attracted second highest investment (8.01 per cent) followed by the services (7.73 per cent), engineering (4.98 per cent), printing and publication (3.16 per cent), agriculture (2.65 per cent), food and food products (2.21 per cent), glass and ceramic (0.36 per cent) and the leather and leather goods (0.36 per cent).
Out of the total foreign and joint-venture investment proposals, the textile sector ranked second with 7.89 per cent followed by chemical (1.87 per cent), engineering (1.81 per cent), agriculture (1.79 per cent) and the leather and leather goods (0.57 per cent).
Besides, the Economic Survey 2007 report also said among the joint-venture projects, the textile sector attracted highest 70.21 per cent of investment followed by chemical 21.6 per cent, engineering 14.1 per cent and agriculture 5.5 per cent.
About the investment scenario, the survey report observed that although investment in Bangladesh showed an impressive growth in the previous fiscals, it recorded a declining trend in the outgoing fiscal with 24 per cent negative growth.
"But it is encouraging to note that the domestic investment showed a 37.7 per cent growth in July '06 to February '07 period of the current fiscal."
Describing the reasons for lower investment, the survey report opined that the FDI fell in the outgoing fiscal due to political turmoil, uncertainty in taking decision on the big investment proposals and absence of proper decision against the investment proposals in the infrastructure sectors.
The report said in the overall growth of the gross domestic product (GDP), the investment played a vital role. "The investment increased to 24.33 per cent of GDP in fiscal 2006-07 from 19.99 per cent in 995-96."