Poor infrastructure, gas crisis hold back FDI: joint chambers

The leaders of the joint chambers on Thursday said that impoverished infrastructure and gas crisis were the key challenges for attracting foreign investment in Bangladesh.
At an event ‘Joint Chambers’ Meet Up’ at Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the business leaders urged government to overcome the challenges for the further economic development and demanded for ensuring one-stop service for the foreign investors.
Canada-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised the event.
‘Dutch and Belgium investors are very much interested to invest in the ship building sector in Bangladesh but infrastructure and gas are the main concern of the foreign investors,’ Hassan Khaled, president of Dutch-Bangla Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said.
Rashed Maksud Khan, president of Philippines-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that coordinated efforts of the government and private sector were needed to face the ongoing challenges as a lot of opportunities were coming up.
Masud Rahman, president of CanCham Bangladesh called for a strong networking of joint chambers to strengthen their voice in the policy formulation for trade and investment as well as attracting FDI.
He said the present investment regime in Bangladesh is quite attractive than those of many other countries in Asia, ‘but we are yet to reap maximum benefit out of it because of precarious condition in areas like infrastructure, port, energy and gas.’
SA Samad, executive chairman, Board of Investment, urged the investors to set up electricity-based industries instead of gas-based ones.
‘Kindly forget gas… The prime minister has already adviced entrepreneurs not to set up gas-based industrial plants,’ he said.
Samad said that Bangladesh solved the problems of electricity but the infrastructure remained weak.
He said that Bangladesh needed investment of about US$ 7-8 billion in infrastructure development to attain 8-9 per cent Gross Domestic Product growth rate.
The BoI chairman said that one-stop service was not possible in Bangladesh.
‘I do not think one-stop service is necessary and sufficient for investment in Bangladesh,’ Samad said, adding that there were seven investment promotion agencies in Bangladesh and those were under the office of prime minister.
Since 2009, foreign direct investment inflow has been increasing steadily and the services offered by BoI have been made online, he said.
Samad underscored the need for sustainable networking among joint chambers operating in Bangladesh for attracting FDI.
Director of Nordic Chamber of Commerce and Regional Head (Bangladesh and Pakistan) of H&M, Roger Hubert, vice president of Indonesia-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce Muhammad Golam Mustafa, director of France-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce Rifat Rashid, CEO of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce Jahangir Bin Alam, vice president of Bangladesh-Thai Chamber of Commerce Charles CR Patra, advisor of Turkey-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce Halef Ozkurt, president of Italy-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce HM Hakim Ali, and vice president of Li & Fung (Bangladesh) and executive member of Foreign Investors’ Chambers of Commerce and Industry Christopher Young, among others, were present.

- See more at: http://newagebd.net/158836/poor-infrastructure-gas-crisis-hold-back-fdi-joint-chambers/#sthash.XvUqhZRH.dpuf