Leading Asian businessmen and academicians have underscored the need for increasing investments in both public and private sectors for infrastructure development, alongside framing investment-friendly policies and regulations to tap the high investment opportunities in the region.
They have also observed that Asia has huge resources, investment opportunities as well as challenges to develop the region as a global engine.
The leaders were sharing their views at a business session on Promoting Investment in Asia on the second day of the two-day ICC international conference on Global Economy Recovery: Asian Perspective at a city hotel on Sunday.
The session chaired by Nepal's first billionaire and business tycoon Binod K Chaudhary, the session was addressed by Myanmar Deputy Minister for Commerce Dr Pwint San, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Nepal Johannes Zutt, Director of Trade and Investment Division of UN ESCAP Ravi Ratnayake, Chairman of Youngone Corporation, South Korea, Kihak Sung, Under Secretary of Nepal's Ministry of Commerce and Supplies Shankar Prasad Poudel and Executive Director of Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) Dr Ahsan H Mansur.
Managing Director and Head of Corporate and Institutional Clients of Standard Chartered Bank Abrar A Anwar, former President of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association Md Fazlul Hoque, Head of Research of Centre for Policy Dialogue Dr Fahmida Khatun and ICC Banking Commission Market Intelligence Group Chair Vincent O' Brien also spoke on the occasion.
The WB country director focused on the scenario of South Asia and said the region had many best practices and innovation but said the region should focus on key areas including infrastructure, urbanisation, land management, private investment and regional and global integration.
He also laid importance on mobilisation and management of public resources, tax reform, reform in state-owned enterprises and accountability with comprehensive adaptation policies on energy, agriculture and urbanisation.
The UNESCAP director referred to the foreign direct investment while giving importance to quality FDIs and said any short term capital inflow might have severe consequences for a country.
Citing the example of Bhutan which is cautious about FDIs and Bangladesh performing better among South Asian countries, he said policies in this regard could exploit the potentials of respective countries.
Mr Ravi focused on the political stability, governance, private sector participations etc to promote investments in Asia for tapping its huge resources.
The Youngone Corporation chairman highlighted the investment scenario of his company in Bangladesh and Vietnam and said in the case of labour, all the investment factors were in favour of Vietnam.
He called upon the Asian countries including Bangladesh to focus on the existing foreign investments and quickly address their issues, concerns and problems to invite more investment and concentrate on infrastructure building before looking for new investments.
The Nepalese under-secretary highlighted his country's challenge to resource mobilisation and supply-side constraint and said adequate business environment, policy measures and support service development could change the scenario of investment in his country.
The PRI executive director said Asia needed about US$ 8.0 trillion only for infrastructure development, for which a strong financial system was needed to be developed.
He said the banking sector could not provide the support and the public sector could not meet 70 per cent of the financial needs.
Mr Ahsan said 20 per cent high risks of investments could be met by the private sector through Public-Private-Partnership and 10 per cent through development partners.
The MD of Standard Chartered Bank referred to continuity of policies including tariff and said Bangladesh should go to the global financial market through issuing bonds and syndicated loan system for building confidence among global investors.
Former BKMEA President said Bangladesh should formulate a roadmap to utilise its resources including gas and electricity to make the country attractive for FDI. Without big investments for manufacturing and infrastructure development, it would be hard to get the middle income country status by 2021, he added.
Smunima@yahoo.com