Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday invited Indian entrepreneurs to make substantial investment in three Special Economic Zones (SEZs) at Mongla, Bheramara and Mirsarai and to use Bangladesh as a manufacturing hub for export to north eastern Indian states and South East Asia. Addressing the India-Bangladesh Business Forum in New Delhi on the second day of her four-day official visit to India, Hasina said Bangladesh has offered three Special Economic Zones for Indian investors at Mongla, Bheramara and Mirsarai and “substantial investment from Indian investors in these three Indian Economic Zones in Bangladesh would help broaden our exportable base.”
She said Bangladesh would also want to see trade and investment together where Indian big investors can set up industries in Bangladesh and export the products to north-eastern states of India and to the South-East Asian countries taking advantage of the improved connectivity between the two countries. “We know that most of the growing economies in the world have undertaken their primary trade and investment projects in their neighboring countries,” Hasina said adding “in a similar manner, Indian business leaders could play a very big role in furthering our economic prospects and together we could build “Sonar Bangla” or Golden Bangladesh as dreamt by the Father of our Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“That would also be the best tribute we can pay to our martyrs and freedom fighters,” she observed. Hasina said Bangladesh and India are at present enjoying the best of relations and the political leaderships are committed to ensuring the right kind of enabling environment for Indian investors. “The platform is there and we are ready to provide every assistance to facilitate your endeavours. I would urge all of you to make best use of the platform and contribute to the economies of both the countries for greater mutual benefits of our peoples. And thereby we could make our countries and the region as a whole more prosperous and free from hunger and poverty,” she said.
She said trade and investment between Bangladesh and India are increasing and emphasized there is a lot of scope for further deepening bilateral ties in these two areas. The volume of trade between the two countries is nearly 10 billion dollars. In 2018, Bangladesh was India’s eighth largest export destination with 8.8 billion dollars export and Bangladesh’s export to India also crossed one billion dollar mark for the first time last year, Hasina pointed out.
The India-Bangladesh Business Forum’s meeting was attended by among others by honchos of Indian trade and industries under the banners of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, (FICCI), Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and the President of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industries.
Hasina said “I always believe that, for any successful venture, political and business leaders must work together and share their ideas and thoughts to identify the priorities and challenges.” She said Bangladesh’s relations with India have reached to the best ever stage, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently termed as a “Sonali Adhyay”. “We are confident that in the coming years, we would further lift our relations to new heights,” she added.
According to Hasina, the India-Bangladesh cooperation began during the War of Liberation in 1971 and the spirit of 1971 has always guided bilateral relations.
She said that despite profound geo-political changes and challenges, Bangladesh and India have been able to strengthen and consolidate their relations based on the principles of “mutual benefit” and “a shared future”.
“Our cooperation has expanded in all areas, including security, energy, connectivity, trade and investment, defence, culture and people-to-people contact,” Hasina said. Pointing out that Bangladesh has achieved remarkable economic progress in the last decade and is often recognized as “development model,” she said the country is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
“It is the second largest garment exporter, third largest inland fish producer, fourth largest freshwater fish producer, fourth largest rice producer and eighth largest remittance earning country. All these achievements partly fulfill the dream of our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to transform Bangladesh into “Sonar Bangla,”Hasina said and added that “if all these positive trends continue, we expect eventually to implement our vision to make Bangladesh a developed country by 2041.”
The PM said that during the last 10 years, Bangladesh’s GDP growth averaged 7% reaching 8.1% last year and expecting to be 8.3% in the current fiscal, inflation has been reduced to 5.4%, per capita income grew 3.5 times to around US$ 2000 in 2019 from US$ 543 in 2006, foreign currency reserve raised to US$ 33 billion and exports grew three times from 2005-06 to reach US$ 40.53 billion in 2018-19.
Hasina quoted from a projection by Price Waterhouse Coopers which says Bangladesh will be the 29th largest economy in the world by 2030, a recent World Bank publication which included Bangladesh in the five fastest growing economies in the world and an Asian Development Bank Outlook 2019 which mentioned Bangladesh as the fastest growing economy in the Asia Pacific region and attributes this achievement to strong leadership, good governance, continued political stability and sound macroeconomic policy.
Hasina said her government follows “zero tolerance” policy to corruption and terrorism. “Bangladesh,” she said, “is a progressive, secular democracy with a homogenous population of 162 million. With a large population, young people mostly under the age of 25 are ready to be engaged at very competitive wages.”
She said rapid urbanization fed by increasing consumption of electricity and burgeoning growth of middle class indicates the market potential in Bangladesh for investors.
“Bangladesh has the most liberal investment policy in South Asia. It includes protection of foreign investment by law, generous tax holiday, concessionary duty on import of machinery, unrestricted exit policy, full repatriation of dividend and capital on exit, to name a few,” she said. Hasina said foreign investment in Bangladesh is protected by relevant acts of Parliament and bilateral investment treaties and the country is in the process of establishing 100 Special Economic Zones and about a dozen of them are ready with four allotments to three countries. A number of high-tech parks are also ready for technology and innovative enterprises, she added.
The PM said persistent growth of global FDI in Bangladesh since her government took over in 2009 reflects the increasing confidence of the foreign investment in Bangladesh. She pointed to the strategic location of Bangladesh saying it provides tremendous potential for being the economic hub of the region. “With India on the west, China on the north and South-East Asia on the east, Bangladesh is in the middle of a combined market of 4 billion people,” Hasina remarked.