“Not only is it (Bangladesh) open to investment, but also to ideas, innovation and enterprise,” he said.
At the Hong Kong meet, Bangladesh ministers made a renewed call upon local and foreign entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh taking advantage of the country’s favourable atmosphere, including macro-economic stability.
However, in view of power and energy constraints faced by industrialists in the country, energy adviser to the prime minister Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury said the government planned to create rings around industrial zones to ensure 24-hour supply of electricity and gas.
He also assured all investors that there would be uninterrupted power and gas supply within a year or two.
Foreign and local investors, potential investors, representatives of the government and private sectors, bankers, financial experts and others concerned attended the one-day 4th Bangladesh Investment Summit, Asia, which was held at the Ritz Carlton.
It was sponsored by The City Bank and Standard Chartered Bank with support from DFDL, LankaBangla, PwC and the Bangladesh Board of Investment (BoI).
The finance minister, Muhith, presenting the keynote speech on “Perspective: Vision for Bangladesh”, said effective macro-economic policies had helped Bangladesh sustain robust economic growth.
He said the debate over the projected 7 per cent growth would be cleared up shortly by the end of this year.
In 2009 when projections of growth were not propitious for the world, Bangladesh kept its head above water, said Muhith adding that from being the largest under-developed country in 1975, Bangladesh has now entered the lower mid-income category.
“We envisage Bangladesh to be a developed country by 2041,” he affirmed, adding, “It may be an ambitious projection, but new environment and technology makes it possible to dream of being a developed country by then.”
Further highlighting the importance of technology in Bangladesh’s development, he said in 1972 Bangladesh produced 11.1 million tonnes of food grain annually, yet now despite the decrease in arable land, it produced 38.2 million tonnes. This was possible due to technology and research, he pointed out.
The energy adviser, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, in his keynote on “Energy Outlook for Bangladesh”, said Bangladesh was an unfolding story.
“Bangladesh is a poor country and needs to conserve energy,” he said, “but we have an enviable carbon footprint of only .4 metric tonnes, where in developed countries this was as high as 20 metric tonnes.”
He said, “We like to be efficient in energy use. Solar energy is a growing sector with four million households of the country lighted with solar energy.” It needed innovation, financial engineering and foreign donations to pull off this miracle, he pointed out. He said the boldness of the prime minister and encouragement of the finance minister led to the exponential growth of the power and energy sectors.
Sohail Hussain, managing director and CEO of The City Bank, highlighted the investment prospects in Bangladesh.
He said The City Bank was proud to be a part of the Bangladesh Investment Summit as a major sponsor and, as a widely respected financial institution, was always ready to innovate and challenge the status quo.
He said while China had declared the one belt one road plan, Bangladesh stood to reap the benefits. Bangladesh’s potential was reflected in the ratings of credit rating agencies such as Fitch, Moody’s and others which predicted a 6.7 to 6.9% growth rate by 2017. The Bangladesh government predicted a GDP of over 7%.
The City Bank CEO pointed to fuel, energy, labour-intensive industries, agro-processing and other sectors as high growth opportunities. He highlighted the expansion of the country’s power and energy sector from the perspective of a financier.
Referring to the growth of the power sector in 2009 to 2016, he said a larger chunk of the power sector capacity was funded by commercial banks of the country, foreign lenders such as IMF and foreign banks.
He felt that there was still need for further power generation and projects larger than ever before were in the pipeline, including large coal-fired power plant projects, nuclear power plants and more. The sheer quantum of these projects required massive investment and innovative solutions, a mixture of equity and debts.
Sohail Hussain said the local banks could fund up to 150MW and up to 10 years, but bigger power plants needed larger investment. Solutions lay in diverse funding such as international pension funds and the Middle Eastern funds. Referring to such foreign banks and fund sources, he said, “Fund us and we can fund power projects.”
Moderating the panel discussion on “Export Potential and ICT Development”, state minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak said Bangladesh had previously been featured as a disaster story. Now, over the last few years the image had changed with a steady GDP growth of over 6 per cent, a demographic dividend and the implementation of the Digital Bangladesh vision.
State minister for foreign affairs Mohammad Shahariar Alam pointed out that prime minister Sheikh Hasina had adopted the millennium development goals in the government’s policies and agendas which had ensured quick implementation of the MDG targets.
Speaking of the country’s thrust sectors, he said the readymade garment sector now had an ambitious target of US$50 billion.
About trade with other countries, he said the huge trade deficit with China, US$7 billion, was not all gloom and doom because much of the imports from China were raw materials, spare parts for various manufacturing industries and so on. China had made entry of Bangladesh’s goods to Chinese market duty free, though Bangladesh had not been able to tap into that market as yet, he added.
Also Bangladesh Bank chief economist Biru Paksha Paul, BUILD chairman Asif Ibrahim, DCCI president Hossain Khaled, Rahimafrooz group director Mudassir Moin, PwC managing partner Mamun Rashid, head of corporate banking Standard Chartered Bank Naser Ezaz Bijoy, BEPZA executive chairman Maj Gen Mohammed Habibur Rahman, Singer Bangladesh chairman Gavin Walker and IFC country head Wendy Jo Werner addressed the meeting.
The summit ended with the closing address by the consul general of Bangladesh in Hong Kong Mohammad Sarwar Mahmood.
Source: Prothom Alo