PM wants amity, regional connectivity

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, addressing the closing plenary of India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum at Hotel Taj Palace of New Delhi in India, on Friday called for managing geopolitical realities in South Asia through collaboration and placed a four-point proposal to make the region connected, friendly and competitive.

Addressing a separate function, the prime minister urged India to inform Bangladesh beforehand if it took any decision to stop the export of essential commodities like onion to Bangladesh in future.

The prime minister also urged the Indian business leaders to avail of the opportunity to invest in Bangladesh, saying that the country had the most liberal investment policy in the region.

The Bangladesh premier reached New Delhi Thursday morning on a four-day official visit to India. A high-level delegation would accompany her in the talks with Modi set to be held at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Saturday.

Addressing the closing plenary of India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum, the prime minister said, ‘In the past decades, we saw many lofty regional ideas and initiatives. Some succeeded, others could not deliver. As I look into the next decades, we should follow the following four ideas to make the region connected, always ready to make bridges with other regions for mutual benefits of the nations.’

Hasina presented her first proposal, saying ‘we must strive to secure peace, stability and harmony, for every individual across our societies. We must move beyond the majority-minority mindset. Pluralism has been the strength of South Asia for centuries. So, we should be able to celebrate South Asia’s diversities in religion, ethnicity and language. This is fundamental.’

As part of her second idea, the prime minster proposed that it must be ensured that inequality across societies were not widened in times of faster growth as wealth creation should be inclusive and must trickle down to the bottom millions.

She further added, ‘Less developed communities or countries should not lag behind. We need to hold hands of “others” across South Asia through our knowledge, experience, expertise and investments.’

Touching on her third idea, the Sheikh Hsina said that mutual trust and respect between all communities and countries were keys. So, misperceptions and false apprehensions needed to end.

Bangladesh consistently contributed to international peace and security in global spheres, emanating from its policy of ‘Friendship to all, Malice to none,’ she pointed out.

She mentioned that in 1996, Bangladesh resolved the issue of Ganges river water sharing with India, adding, ‘We amicably delimited our maritime boundary with India and Myanmar.’

Bangladesh and India started developing trans-boundary river navigation, she said.

In the fourth proposal, the prime minister said, ‘We must manage our geopolitical realities through friendship and collaboration. Let us appreciate and balance regional political realties for the interest of our peoples. We cannot trade off long-term interests for short-term gains.’

Deputy prime minister of Singapore Heng Swee Keat, managing director of Sequoia Capital India Shailendra Singh, executive vice chairperson of Apollo Hospital Enterprise Shobana Karmineni and chairwoman of Booking.com Gillian Tans were panellists in the event moderated by WEF president Borge Brende.

Replying to a query from the moderator of the event, Hasina said Bangladesh attached priority to establishing connectivity among South Asia, South East Asia and other regions to promote trade and commerce.

She said her government worked to restore the previous connectivity which was suspended after 1965.

‘We always think about it. We can make bridges in this region and beyond the region,’ she said, adding that Bangladesh played a role in establishing the Asian Highway and the Asian Railway.

Describing poverty as the common enemy in this region, she said, ‘All the countries in the region should work together to fight the menace. We have the ability to do it and we will definitely do it.’

Turning to the Rohingya issue, Hasina said the displaced Rohingyas emerged as a problem for Bangladesh.

The Singaporean deputy prime minister appreciated prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s idea of working together to make the region stronger in terms of reducing poverty and exchanging cooperation.

Addressing at the inaugural function of India-Bangladesh Business Forum at Kamal Mahal Hall of Hotel ICT Maurya in New Delhi, the prime minister said, ‘Suddenly, you stopped the export of onion to Bangladesh. Had you informed us earlier, we could have managed to import onions from other countries.’

She added that Dhaka would appreciate if New Delhi informed Bangladesh before taking any such decision in the future.

‘Bangladesh has the most liberal investment policy in South Asia that 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.

Sheikh Hasina urged India-Bangladesh businessmen to work for mutual benefits and make the region more prosperous, saying that the two neighbouring countries are enjoying the best ever relations.

The prime minister also emphasised the fact that the two country’s political leaderships were committed to ensuring the right kind of enabling environment for all.

About IBBF, she said, ‘The platform is there and we are ready to provide every assistance to facilitate your endeavours.’

The prime minister simultaneously urged the Indian businessmen to step up with investment in special economic zones and high-tech parks in Bangladesh.

In this regard, she said, ‘A number of high-tech parks are also ready for technology and innovative enterprises. Bangladesh has offered three Special Economic Zones for Indian investors at Mongla, Bheramara and Mirsarai.  Substantial investment from Indian investors in these three Indian Economic Zones in Bangladesh would help broaden our export base.’

She said Bangladesh was in the process of establishing 100 Special Economic Zones. About a dozen of them were ready with four allotments to three countries, she added.

Speaking about Bangladesh’s possibility of becoming an economic hub of the region, she said, ‘Strategic location of Bangladesh 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.’

Referring to the global foreign direct investment growth, the prime minister said, ‘Persistent growth of global FDI in Bangladesh since our government took over in 2009 reflects the increasing confidence of foreign investment in Bangladesh.’

Noting foreign investment is protected by relevant acts of parliament and bilateral investment treaties, she said, ‘We want to see trade and investment thrive together and want to make sure that Indian big investors can set up industries in Bangladesh.’

She said Bangladesh also wanted to export the products to the north-eastern states of India and to the South-East Asian countries, taking advantage of the improved connectivity between the two countries.

The prime minister further said, ‘We know that most of the growing economies in the world have undertaken their primary trade and investment projects in their neighbouring countries.’

She said in the similar manner, Indian business leaders could play a very big role in furthering the two countries’ economic prospects.

Referring to Bangladesh’s potential with a large population, she said young people mostly under the age of 25 were ready to be engaged at very competitive wages, adding, ‘Rapid urbanisation fed by increasing consumption of electricity and burgeoning growth of middle class indicates the market potential in Bangladesh for investors.’

On the rising trend of trade and investment between the two countries, the prime minister said the volume of bilateral trade grew steadily during the past years as the balance of trade, however, was still largely in India’s favour.

She said, ‘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 our export to India also crossed 1 billion dollar mark for the first time last year. So, the progress is visible, but there is lot of scope for further deepening of our relations in the area of trade and investment.’

Hasina further said, ‘Despite profound geopolitical changes and challenges, we have been able to strengthen and consolidate our relations based on the principles of “mutual benefit” and “a shared future.’’’

The prime minister spelled out the success of the country’s economy in the last decade and said, ‘During the last 10 years, our GDP growth averaged 7 per cent reaching 8.1 per cent last year and expecting to be 8.2 per cent in the current fiscal.’

‘Inflation has been reduced to 5.4 per cent while per capita income grew 3.5 times to around $2000 in 2019 from $543 in 2006, foreign currency reserve raised to $ 33 billion, exports grew 3 times from 2005-06 to reach $40.53 billion in 2018-2019,’ she added.

Indian industry and railway minister Piyush Goyal, Bangladesh commerce minister Tipu Munshi, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries president Sheikh Fazle Fahim, Confederation of Indian Industry president Vikram Shreekant Kirloskar, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Sandip Somany and Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India president Balkrishan Goenka also spoke on the occasion.

A video presentation titled ‘Promising Bangladesh’ featuring extraordinary growth of Bangladesh in various sectors, particularly in the health, infrastructure development, ICT, leather, and RMG was made.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net