Higher GDP growth demands larger FDI: ICCB

The country now needs to accelerate its GDP growth to over 8 per cent and maintain the present remittance growth to become a middle-income country by 2021, said a leading chamber body on Wednesday. Bangladesh's economy has maintained a healthy 6 per cent-plus growth rate in the past decade despite global shocks, according to the editorial of the current News Bulletin (July-Sept 2014 issue) of the International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB). In the budget for the current fiscal, the government has set 7.3pc growth target. To achieve the target, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the total investment should be around 34.3pc from the present level of 28.7pc of GDP. There is no denying the fact that FDI inflow into the country has been increasing for the last several years. It stood at US $1.73 billion in FY 2013, registering a 45 per cent growth over US $1.19b a year ago, the chamber body observed. To achieve a higher growth trajectory, Bangladesh has to attract FDIs to address infrastructure deficit, productivity gap and diversification of export base as well as transparent and timely decision-making and ensuring stricter enforcement of government commitments, according to a news agency.