Why do we lag behind in attracting foreign investments?
Although Bangladesh has significant potential for investment, poor infrastructure, bureaucratic obstacles, corruption, political instability, lack of access to finance and regulatory hurdles remain concerns.
According to businesspeople and experts at the Bangladesh Startup Connect 2025 meeting held on the sidelines of the Bangladesh Investment Summit Tuesday mentioned that the above barriers have given rise to an unfavourable business environment in the country.
Foreign investors, on the other hand, want the government to ensure policy predictability in order to retain the investors’ confidence. When they commit investments, they do it on the basis of the prevailing rules and regulations. If those laws are changed abruptly, uncertainties and risks are created; it was remarked by the discussants.
It is to be noted that the event was arranged with a view to showcasing local startups, fostering close-border collaborations, and unlocking new investment opportunities. The main panellists included Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun, executive chairman of Bida, Ahsan H Mansur, governor of Bangladesh Bank, and Shish Haider Chowdhury, secretary of the ICT Division.
In order to build up an investment-friendly culture, a stable and corruption-free environment for business must first be created. Investment security and the scope for businesspersons’ licensing rights must be ensured. Above all, the government too must continuously make sincere efforts to attract investors.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s 2024 World Investment Report, foreign direct investment (FDI) declined by 2.5 percent worldwide in 2023, while Bangladesh’s fell by 14.5 percent.
Bangladesh received $3 billion in foreign investment in 2023, while India received $28.16 billion, Vietnam $18.5 billion, Indonesia $21.63 billion, Cambodia $3.96 billion, and Pakistan $1.82 billion. Foreign investment in Bangladesh is always considered lower than expected.
If we want to attract investment in competition with other countries, we must update our existing policies, and improve our education standard. Our regulatory bodies need to move away from the ‘licence-boss’ attitude and become business-friendly and step up use of technology.
Attention must also be paid to ensure that companies can get good returns on their investment, that they can easily repatriate their returns and get justice in legal lawsuits. And there should also be no discrimination among the local and foreign companies.