The weeklong ‘Bangladesh Trade and Investment Summit-2021’ ends with entrepreneurs showing interest to invest $1.16 billion.

A report on the outcome of the summit, jointly organized by the Ministry of Commerce and Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI), was revealed at a press conference on Monday.

Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh and DCCI President Rizwan Rahman spoke at the press conference held at DCCI Auditorium in the capital.

Rizwan Rahman said 369 B2Bs firms attended the summit in addition to 552 local and foreign companies from 38 countries. They showed interest to invest $1.16 billion in Bangladesh.

“Tewenty companies from 13 countries showed interest to go for joint ventures, while 26 products have been identified as potential for export from Bangladesh,” the DCCI President told journalists.

Five countries showed interest in direct investment in sectors like infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, baby bottle, umbrella, agro and food processing and IT, he said. 

Power, energy, renewable energy, dairy products, FMCG, RMG, leather, automobile and jute are some of the sectors that have foreign investment opportunities.

In different sessions under this summit, Rizwan said, speakers underscored the need for improving the ease of doing business, policy reforms, technology adaptation, skill development, fiscal and non-fiscal incentives, strong economic diplomacy and signing FTA or PTA with potential trading partners. 

Bangladesh has the ability to grab huge opportunities from African, Asia and Pacific and Middle Eastern countries in terms of inward or outward investments.

The most important thing is to enhance the country’s export competitiveness in the global market after its LDC graduation. 

“Bangladesh is already a member of some regional blocks like SAFTA, APTA, D-8. However, the country needs to go for PTA or FTA with other major trading partners. It came out of the summit that Bangladesh also has a large consumer market, so local market resource mobilization and tariff rationalization are also important,” Rizwan pointed out.

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Speakers also reiterated their demand for a strong and vibrant bond market and innovative blended financing model to ensure long-term infrastructure financing.   

Replying to questions from the journalists, Tapan Kanti said  Bangladesh may need to sign FTA or PTA with potential trading partners like EU countries, the UK, Canada, Japan and Australia after the  LDC graduation.

But averaging duty structure on both sides is critical before signing FTA but the government of Bangladesh is working on it, he said.

For FTA, a drastic duty cut is not possible as it may hamper internal revenue generation and local manufacturers but it may be considered gradually, the DCCI president added.

Besides, it is the government's duty to safeguard the interests of local industries, he mentioned. 

Regarding the ease of doing business, he said the government is trying to bring all its major services, for instance, land registration, mutation, company registration in joint stock companies under automation that will ease the process simplification in the near future. 

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He also said the Bangladesh Trade and Investment Summit 2021 has been successfully organized by the Ministry of Commerce and DCCI to showcase Bangladesh’s readiness to attract investment after Covid and brand the positive image of the country to the world.