BD \\\'most attractive investment destination\\\' in Southeast Asia

FE Team | Published: September 05, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Bangladesh is now the most attractive and potential destination for investment in Southeast Asia as it has had a stable gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate for the last one decade.
Prime Minister's Foreign Affairs Adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi said this while presenting the keynote paper at the second Bangladesh Investment Summit, Asia, organised by Finance Asia in Singapore Thursday, according to a message received in Dhaka on the day, reports UNB.
"Bangladesh is truly moving forward and proving herself as the most vibrant and potential destination for investment in Southeast Asia as the country has been achieving a stable GDP growth of over 6.0 per cent for the last one decade," he said.
The main slogan of the summit was 'Unlocking Opportunities for Asia's Investors'.
Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), The City Bank, LR Global, Eastern Bank, Lanka Bangla Securities, BRAC EPL and DFDL sponsored the summit, while Channel i and The Daily Star were the media partners.
Mr Rizvi focused on the challenges and future of Bangladesh, its forex reserve, export growth, remittance earnings from 10 million people working outside, the balance of payments (BoP) and growing power generation.
The PM's adviser also highlighted Bangladesh's geographical location and recent settlement of maritime boundary with India and Myanmar which will help invest in natural resources.
He also focused on Bangladesh's growing domestic market of 160 million people in addition to 70 million of the eastern region of India.
Responding to a question about Dhaka-Chittagong connectivity, the PM's adviser said the government is trying to complete the work on the four-lane Dhaka-Chittagong highway within the next six months.
He mentioned the nation's efforts for building the much-hyped Padma Bridge with its own fund, and said the government is sincerely working to improve the rail and river connectivity.
Replying to another question, Mr Rizvi lamented that there are so many issues to promote Bangladesh, but those are not getting due focus.
A good number of investors along with financial institutions from Bangladesh attended the summit.
The summit started with the welcome speech by Jim McCabe, CEO, SCB, Bangladesh followed by another speech by Mashrur Arefin, DMD of The City Bank.
Later, the main session of the event started with the caption 'Mapping economic growth, risk and regulatory landscape' with panellists Christian De Gunmn, VP, Sovereign Risk Group, Moody's Investors' Service, Radika Kak, economist, SCB and Johannes Zutt, country director, Bangladesh, World Bank.
Eminent financial consultant of Bangladesh K Mahmood Satter moderated the session.
All the panellists focused on disciplined workforces, efficient private entrepreneurs for the growth of the readymade garment (RMG) sector, tremendous efforts of farmers for growing the agriculture sector, increasing power generation, strong foreign remittance inflow, improvement of social security, good macroeconomic management, positive BoP, healthy GDP growth and affordable interest rate for development of the country and attracting investment.