PM's visit to sensitise Japanese businessmen: JICA chief
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Chief Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Dr Takao Toda on Friday expressed the view that the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would encourage the Japanese businessmen to know about Bangladesh, as a lucrative destination for their investment, reports BSS.
"The visit of Bangladesh premier to Japan will help draw attention of the Japanese business community to this country's large potential as a sound investment destination," he said at an exclusive interview with the news agency.
At present Japanese entrepreneurs, he said, are looking for diversifying their investment destinations to other Asian countries. Bangladesh can be an attractive destination for investment, considering its huge excellent human resources and cheap labour force, he noted.
Bangladesh has to highlight its potential as investment destination so that potential investors can seize the opportunities for utilising its huge manpower, he said.
Dr Toda said the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, from November 28 to December 02, is very significant in strengthening socio-economic cooperation between Tokyo and Dhaka.
The government of Japan attaches great importance for increasing its cooperation for development of Bangladesh, he observed.
He said that construction of Padma Bridge and the metro rail in Dhaka and development of the power sector might get priority during the PM's visit.
The Japan government is interested to make its commitment for providing assistance for building the Padma bridge and metro rail, he said.
"We would also like to provide our support for development of the power sector and a master plan is being formulated in this regard," he said, adding that one of the top policy-advisers of Tokyo POWER Cooperation will visit Dhaka to assist the government of Bangladesh by end of this year.
"I would like to highlight the dynamism and multi-dimensional character of the bilateral relationship between Japan and Bangladesh, it is not only the money, it is something special," Toda said.
The JICA chief said the unique feature of Japan's cooperation is that it has been implementing cooperation in two major ways -- one through assistance to large-scale infrastructure and other in improving of public health, education, science and technology.
"When you see the Japanese cooperation in social sector activities only in monetary term, they are comparatively small. But they are priceless when you see them from the points of potential social impacts," he said.
Japan is the largest bilateral development partner of Bangladesh since its independence and the cumulative assistance by Tokyo to Dhaka has so far amounted to more than US$ 8.0 billion, which is even bigger than the assistance that Bangladesh has received from the United States and the United Kingdom together.
The present annual bilateral flow of Japanese official development assistance (ODA) to Bangladesh is at the level of over US$400 million and is expected to exceed $500 in the coming days.
Japan has become the sixth largest source of foreign investment in Bangladesh with its total investment in Bangladesh, being registered with the Board of Investment (BOI), amounting to $ 1,207 million on a cumulative basis.
"The visit of Bangladesh premier to Japan will help draw attention of the Japanese business community to this country's large potential as a sound investment destination," he said at an exclusive interview with the news agency.
At present Japanese entrepreneurs, he said, are looking for diversifying their investment destinations to other Asian countries. Bangladesh can be an attractive destination for investment, considering its huge excellent human resources and cheap labour force, he noted.
Bangladesh has to highlight its potential as investment destination so that potential investors can seize the opportunities for utilising its huge manpower, he said.
Dr Toda said the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, from November 28 to December 02, is very significant in strengthening socio-economic cooperation between Tokyo and Dhaka.
The government of Japan attaches great importance for increasing its cooperation for development of Bangladesh, he observed.
He said that construction of Padma Bridge and the metro rail in Dhaka and development of the power sector might get priority during the PM's visit.
The Japan government is interested to make its commitment for providing assistance for building the Padma bridge and metro rail, he said.
"We would also like to provide our support for development of the power sector and a master plan is being formulated in this regard," he said, adding that one of the top policy-advisers of Tokyo POWER Cooperation will visit Dhaka to assist the government of Bangladesh by end of this year.
"I would like to highlight the dynamism and multi-dimensional character of the bilateral relationship between Japan and Bangladesh, it is not only the money, it is something special," Toda said.
The JICA chief said the unique feature of Japan's cooperation is that it has been implementing cooperation in two major ways -- one through assistance to large-scale infrastructure and other in improving of public health, education, science and technology.
"When you see the Japanese cooperation in social sector activities only in monetary term, they are comparatively small. But they are priceless when you see them from the points of potential social impacts," he said.
Japan is the largest bilateral development partner of Bangladesh since its independence and the cumulative assistance by Tokyo to Dhaka has so far amounted to more than US$ 8.0 billion, which is even bigger than the assistance that Bangladesh has received from the United States and the United Kingdom together.
The present annual bilateral flow of Japanese official development assistance (ODA) to Bangladesh is at the level of over US$400 million and is expected to exceed $500 in the coming days.
Japan has become the sixth largest source of foreign investment in Bangladesh with its total investment in Bangladesh, being registered with the Board of Investment (BOI), amounting to $ 1,207 million on a cumulative basis.