PM urges investors to exploit liberal policy

FE Team | Published: September 18, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged Wednesday foreign investors to take advantage of the very liberal and favourable regulatory regime, skilled workforce and strategic location of Bangladesh to expand their businesses, report agencies.
"The government of Bangladesh is committed to stay on its upward course to attract FDI and maintain investment-friendly environment for our economic development," she said.
The Prime Minister was inaugurating the International Investment Forum-2014 organised by the Board of Investment (BoI) at a city hotel on Wednesday.
In order to achieve the middle income economy status by 2021, Hasina said that her government had been working hard for establishing a truly one-stop-service facility for the private sector investors, revisiting and simplifying old, irrelevant legal and regulatory issues.
Welcoming the investors to be part of Bangladesh's dynamic and growing economy, Sheikh Hasina said, "Please find out for yourselves what Bangladesh can offer".
Chaired by BoI executive chairman Dr Syed A Samad, the inaugural session was also addressed by Finance Minister AMA Muhith, FBCCI president Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed, and President of France-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CCIFB) and Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge Surma Cement Ltd Tarek Ahmed ELBA.
PMO Senior Secretary Md Abul Kalam Azad gave the welcome address while IFC, World Bank Group country manager for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal Kyle F Kelhoper made the opening remarks.
The Prime Minister along with the guests at the dais also launched the Investment Facilitation & Regulatory Guidebooks by BoI and BUILD.
Organised by the BoI, a total of 273 investors from 21 countries, including Bangladesh, attended the daylong seminar aiming to attract local and foreign investment.
In his inaugural address, the Prime Minister said that traditional trade and investment paradigms were shifting with a view to accumulating the higher degree of south-south cooperation.
"A dynamic private sector can take advantage of this change, with the support of their respective governments, to ensure a robust and sustainable economic growth."
Welcoming all to be a part in making the economy of Bangladesh a dynamic and growing one, she hoped that this will be a continuous process. "We can build on the successes of this Forum to generate further interest in improving trade and investment in the region," she said.
Hasina said that her government offers the most liberal FDI regime in South Asia, allowing for 100 per cent foreign equity, unrestricted remittance policy, and repatriation of profits and incomes, technical assistance fee and royalty fee.