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Press Briefing on Outcome Decleration
The outcome report of the 7-day “Bangladesh Trade and Investment Summit 2021” jointly organized by Ministry of Commerce and Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) has been disseminated today on 1st November 2021 at a press briefing held at DCCI Auditorium. Secretary, Ministry of Commerce Tapan Kanti Ghosh and DCCI President Rizwan Rahman were present on the occasion.
DCCI President Rizwan Rahman in the outcome dissemination presentation said that during the summit there were 369 B2Bs attended by 552 local and foreign companies from 38 countries where potential investment interest size was USD1.16 billion. 20 companies from 13 countries showed their interest to do joint ventures. 26 products have been identified as potential for export from Bangladesh. There were few sectors like infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, baby bottle, umbrella, agro and food processing and IT from 5 countries that showed their interest for direct investment in Bangladesh. Power, energy, renewable energy, dairy products, FMCG, RMG, leather, automobile and jute are some of the sectors that have foreign investment opportunities. He also said that in different sessions under this summit, speakers underscored the need of improving in ease of doing business, policy reforms, technology adaptation, skill development, fiscal and non-fiscal incentives, strong economic diplomacy and signing FTA or PTA with potential trading partners. Bangladesh has the ability to grab the huge opportunity from African, Asia & Pacific and Middle Eastern countries in terms of inward or outward investments. The most important thing is to enhance our export competitiveness in the global market after the LDC graduation. Bangladesh is already the member of some regional blocks like SAFTA, APTA, D-8. However the country needs to go for PTA or FTA with other major trading partners. It was came out of the summit that Bangladesh has also a large consumer market, so local market resource mobilization and tariff rationalization are also important, Rizwan Rahman pointed out. Speakers also reiterated for a strong and vibrant bond market and innovative blended financing model to ensure long term infrastructure financing.
Replying to a few questions from the journalists, Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh said that after LDC graduation Bangladesh may need to sign FTA or PTA with potential trading partners like EU countries, UK, Canada, Japan, Australia etc. But averaging duty structure on both sides is a critical thing before signing FTA but the government of Bangladesh is working on this matter. For FTA, drastically duty cut is not possible as it may hamper internal revenue generation and local manufacturers but it may be considered gradually, he added. Besides, it is government’s duty to safeguard the interests of local industries. Regarding ease of doing business, he said government is trying to bring all its major services for instance land registration, mutation, company registration in joint stock companies under automation that will ease the process simplification in near future. Addressing to a separate question, he said that government will surely consider the demand for an economic zone especially dedicated for leather industry. He also echoed with the others’ opinion of allowing bond facility to other export-oriented industries to replicate RMG success model to make them competitive like the RMG sector. Later he said that the Bangladesh Trade and Investment Summit 2021 has been successfully organized by the Ministry of Commerce and DCCI to showcase Bangladesh’s readiness to attracting investment event after Covid time and brand the positive image of the country to the world.
Published on: 2021-11-01