Local investment proposals with BoI go up by 14pc

Ziaur Rahman | Published: July 26, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Investment proposals by local entrepreneurs showed an upward trend in the just-concluded fiscal (2013-14). Some 1,308 proposals involving US$ 6.392 billion were registered with the Board of Investment (BoI)
But the BoI could not update the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) figure.
According to BoI, investment proposals made by domestic entrepreneurs in the last fiscal marked a 14 per cent growth as against the proposals the previous fiscal. In the previous year (2012-13), some 1,457 proposals worth about US$ 5.599 billion were registered with the BoI.
The highest number of proposals with large amount of investment from local entrepreneurs was registered with the BoI in the fiscal 2011-12. A total of 1,735 proposals worth about USS 6.67 billion were registered with the BOI in the year. The figure came down substantially in 2012-13 due to political unrest over the national elections.
"The lucrative investment opportunities and the successful completion of the January 5 election have encouraged people to come up with fresh investments," said BoI executive member Nabhash Chandra Mandal while talking to The FE. He pointed out that Bangladesh's investment policy is one of the best among all the South Asian countries.
Among the proposals, the highest amount of investment proposals worth about USS 2.03 billion was registered for 92 projects in service sector, followed by US$ 1.06 in 348 projects in textile sector, US$ 1 billion in 311 chemical industries and US$ 960 million in 116 agro-based industries in the last fiscal.
The BoI, however, could not update the foreign investment flow for the second half of the last fiscal.
During the June-December period of the last fiscal, proposals involving US$ 933 million FDI was registered with the BoI. The amount is 16 per cent less than the investment proposals registered during the same period in the previous year.
BoI officials, however, expect more FDI in the second half as the trend over the last few years indicated better inflows in the second halves. "The inflow of FDI in the first half of the previous fiscal was about 95 per cent more than that of the first half," said Mr Nabhash Chandra.
The highest number of FDI proposals worth about US$ 317 million was registered with BOI for industries in the manufacturing sector during the first half of the last fiscal. Of the amount US$ 183 million was for textile and apparel sectors.
Meanwhile, the world investment report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, released in Dhaka recently said, FDI in Bangladesh increased by 24 per cent to US$ 1,599 million in 2013 compared to US$ 1,293 million in the previous year.
According to the report, the textiles and clothing sector had the lion's share of the total FDI in 2013 as the foreign entities invested US$ 422 million in the sector. FDIs in banking and telecommunication totaled US$ 327 million and US$ 324 million respectively. Overseas investment in the power, gas and petroleum was only US$ 99 million while it was US$ 238 million and US$ 127 million in the years 2011 and 2012.