Bangladesh is a good place for industrial investment as the government has been providing very good policy support for foreign investors, Chinese investors said.
Chinese and Hong Kong-based business people said this while speaking at a programme on the ‘2023 Chinese New Year Reception in Bangladesh’ in the capital yesterday. The programme was organised jointly by Overseas Chinese Association in Bangladesh and Hong Kong and Trade Office in Bangkok on Friday at Le Meridian Dhaka.
The country has made a stunning economic record, a highly adaptive and competitive workforce and several potential industrial sectors with low-cost and high-return manufacturing regimes in Asia. Bangladesh has higher-skilled workforces with low cost, which help to gain more profit, they said.
The country has duty-free access in many developed countries including Japan and Australia, they said, adding that they can enter and export to different countries with competitive advantages.
They said the government has a fixed target to achieve developed country status by 2041, they said, adding that they have huge opportunities to invest in Bangladesh.
Calvin Ngan, President of the Overseas Chinese Association in Bangladesh, told Bangladesh Post that the work ethics and environment of Bangladesh are excellent.
"The country remarkably has a skilled workforce," he said, adding that now the average population age of the country is about 28, which helps to increase the capacity of the workers.
In the last 15 years, we continue to invest in the country, we see that Bangladesh has improved its supply chain system many times more especially in the government industries.
On the other hand, we are getting duty-free facilities to access other developed countries’ markets, which helps to get competitive advantages from other business people, he mentioned.
"The government has taken a lot of initiatives to ease doing business to ensure a business-friendly environment," he added.
Felixy C Chang, chairmen and Chief Executive officer of Evergreen Products Group Limited, told Bangladesh Post as a garments industry, Bangladesh is doing very well in the global market.
He mentioned, “I have been doing business in the country since 2010. We always get skilled workforces as per demand. Even during the Covid-19 pandemic, we could run our organization with the support of the government and bravo workforces in the country, which helps to avoid loss of the organization.”
Bangladesh is in the second position in terms of garments export and China is at the top, that is the reason to invest here, he added.
However, the country’s foreign direct investment (FDI) witnessed rapid growth despite a global crisis, thanks to a stable political environment, experts said.
The FDI increased by about 28 percent to stand at $1.16 billion in the first quarter (Q1) in the current fiscal year 2022-23 over the same period of the previous fiscal, according to Bangladesh Bank.
During July-September of fiscal 2021-22, Bangladesh received $907 million of the FDI.