Bangladesh Calls for Greater Malaysian Investment

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | May 24, 2010 by D-8 Secretariat

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina invited Malaysian entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh and take advantage of the existing favourable investment climate

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday last week invited Malaysian entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh and take advantage of the existing favourable investment climate, as reported by Bangladeshi media source.

The Prime Minister said this while addressing a roundtable discussion of Malaysian investors, at the Ball Room of Hotel Istana, in Kuala Lumpur.

The meeting was organized to share ideas on how to boost business initiatives between Malaysia and Bangladesh.

President of SMM Group of Malaysia Tan Sri Datuk Mustafa Monsur chaired the function.

The PM suggested investment in the country’s labour intensive RMG, textile, and light engineering industries as well as in the electronics, agro-based product, ICT, power and infrastructure industries.

During the meeting, Sheikh Hasina also requested the Malaysian businessmen to increase import of world class Bangladeshi products like jute and leather goods, RMG, ceramics and pharmaceuticals for the mutual benefit of both countries.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh is pursuing a free market policy and the government has liberalized its trade regimes, and investment policies. She also said the country had reduced interest rates, the cost of doing business and infrastructure bottlenecks as well as improving port facilities.

She elaborated that the investment climate in Bangladesh was now attractive with liberal fiscal policies, such as tax holidays, concessionary duties on imported machinery, remittances on royalty, technical know how, and technical assistance fee. Adding that the country now allows 100% foreign equity and full repatriation facilities of dividend and capital.

The PM also pointed out that Bangladesh itself was a big domestic market of 160 million people and that the country maintains healthy macro-economic fundamentals, enjoys a stable environment; and has a ready, cheap and competitive workforce.

Referring to Public Private Partnership (PPP) policy adopted by her government, Sheikh Hasina said Malaysia, with its experience with PPP, could support Bangladesh in building these projects.

Pointing out that despite the recent world wide economic recession, she said that Bangladesh has sustained about a 6 percent growth rate and was rated ahead of all South Asian economies, except India, by both S&P and Moody’s.

At present Malaysia is the fifth largest investor in Bangladesh with a total investment of nearly US $150 crore, with 72 Malaysian joint venture projects in the private sector creating employment for over 13,000 people.

Commerce Minister, Muhammad Faruk Khan; Adviser to the Prime Minister, Dr Moshiur Rahman; Executive Chairman of Board of Investment (BoI), Syed Abdus Samad; Ambassador-at-Large, M Ziauddin; Foreign Secretary, Mohamed Mijarul Quayes; Press Secretary to the Prime Minister, Abul Kalam Azad; and the Bangladesh Ambassador to Malaysia, K M Atiqur Rahman, among others, were present at the discussions.

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