Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bangladesh has declined by 4.74 percent within a year, says a report of a United Nations agency.
According to a report of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the country attracted $1.53 billion in FDI in 2014 as against $1.6 billion in 2013.
The Board of Investment released the ‘World Investment Report-2015’ in Bangladesh on Wednesday.
Prime Minister’s Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Adviser Tawfiq-E-Elahi Chowdhury was present at the launch of report at Jibon Bima Bhaban in Dhaka.
Jahangirnagar University Economics Department Professor M Ismail Hossain highlighted different aspects of the report.
He said manufacturing sector had lured in the highest amount of FDI, $722.88 million, in 2014 and it was followed by trade and commerce sector with $366.7 million.
Transport, storage and communications sector attracted $235 million in FDI in the year.
As a single sector, the apparel industry recorded $399.2 million investment in 2014, with the banking sector trailing it with $311.87 million FDI.
But the report added foreign investment in the two sectors declined last year.
It said the lion’s share of the FDI in 2014 came in the form of reinvestment of profits earned by the foreign enterprises. The figure was $988.79 million.
A total of $283.1 million came as equity and $257.6 million as intra-company loans.
Asked about the reasons of decline in FDI, the Board of Investment Chairman SA Samad said: “There was no reason for fall in investment. Rather, we expected the investment would increase as all investment-related formalities had been relaxed.”
The prime ministerial adviser Chowdhury said he did not think the investment figures in the UNCTAD report were correct.
“The entire picture has not been presented in this report. There were many investments beyond the sectors whose indexes have been considered in calculation of the FDI,” he said.
Citing an example, he said: “Chevron alone invested $50 million. However, the report said an investment of only $50 million came in gas, power and petroleum sector.”
Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Public Accounts Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, however, said Bangladesh needed to admit that foreign investment had declined.
“Not only foreign investment, local investment needs to be encouraged,” he said.
The Foreign Investors’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Rupali Chowdhury said: “We’re inviting foreign investors. But it is being said at world investment forums that investment in Bangladesh is not easy due to three main reasons.”
She said weakness in infrastructure, bureaucratic bottlenecks and corruption were the reasons.
Source: Bd news24
