SCB, City Bank to sponsor the event in Singapore
A daylong summit to tell Bangladesh’s success story and lure in foreign investors is set to take place early next month in Singapore, Asia’s financial hub.
Dubbed the second Bangladesh Investment Summit in Asia, the forum, which is expected to be attended by nearly 300 Asia-based delegates, will be an important platform for businesses and policymakers to showcase Bangladesh as an exciting investment destination.
FinanceAsia and AsianInvestor, both published by Haymarket Financial Media Group, is organising the event at the Four Seasons Hotel Singapore on September 4.
Standard Chartered Bangladesh is the summit’s headline sponsor and City Bank Ltd is the platinum sponsor.
At a press conference yesterday to announce the event, Jim McCabe, chief executive officer of SCB, said the country has demonstrated rapid progress since independence and has been “rightly” identified by Goldman Sachs as one of the next 11 emerging markets.
The summit will “unfold the interesting story of Bangladesh, its sustained growth and immense opportunities to potential investors and the international finance sector in general”, he said.
It will address some of the most pertinent issues for companies planning to invest in the country and for Bangladeshi companies looking to rise in Asia.
McCabe said this year’s event will be “more balanced” as a wider selection of government representatives, rating agencies, asset managers, institutional investors, principals from private equity and hedge funds, high officials of the country’s leading corporations, heads of research from Asia-based brokerage houses will be present.
Topics to be covered include: mapping economic growth, risks and the regulatory landscape; accessing Bangladesh’s equity and debt capital markets; investment opportunities in public-private partnership projects and where the country feature in investment allocation strategy.
“Such events promote Bangladesh in the international business community. This is our chance to change the perception of the country by showcasing tremendous achievements of Bangladesh in recent times,” said Sohail RK Hussain, CEO of City Bank.
Gowher Rizvi, international affairs adviser to the prime minister, will present the keynote speech on “Bangladesh Beckons: The New Narrative”, while Farooq Sobhan, president of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, will speak on the investment opportunities in Bangladesh.
There will be a session where top officials from banks, IT and garment industry will discuss a number of issues such as business landscape, potential and challenges, regulatory and bureaucratic support and hindrance moderated by McCabe.
Johannes Zutt, World Bank’s country director for Bangladesh, and Kyle F Kelhofer, Bangladesh’s country manager of International Finance Corporation, will also attend the summit.
BRAC EPL, LankaBangla, LR Global and Eastern Bank are silver sponsors and DFDL is the bronze sponsor of the summit.
The Daily Star, Channel i, Bloomberg, Mergermarket, Eurekahedge and Asia First are media partners for the event.
The inaugural edition of the summit took place in Singapore in 2012 and the following year, the venue was shifted to London to target the Europe-based investors. Following great interests from investors, the summit was moved back to Singapore this year.
Source: The Daily Star
