At a time when Bangladesh’s economy is facing a “storm”, the just concluded four-day Bangladesh Investment Summit 2025 promises a new ray of hope.
Around 550 investors from 50 countries, including host Bangladesh, attended the event. Similar summits have also been held in the past, but not much has been achieved.
In a politically unstable country like Bangladesh, investors are concerned about whether investment policies will change after the political changes.
For this reason, representatives from three political parties — BNP, National Citizen Party and Jamaat-e-Islami — were invited at the conference. Representatives of these parties presented their brochures, documents and gifts on their respective plans to the investors.
Four local companies, Bikash Limited, Fabric Lagbe Limited, Walton and Square Pharmaceuticals were awarded at the conference. In addition, honorary citizenship was given to Kihak Sang, chairman of Korean investor Yangwon Corporation, who has been doing business in Bangladesh for the last 45 years and employs 70,000 people in his 48 industrial establishments. We hope this will surely encourage other foreign investors in the country.
Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) Executive Chairman Chowdhury Ashiq Mahmud Bin Harun addressing a briefing said that despite different political ideologies, BNP, Jamaat and NCP are in agreement on increasing investment, improving the environment and creating employment.
Investors, he said, have expressed interest in holding meetings with the three political parties.
However, investors attending the conference expressed optimism to invest but they also highlighted some obstacles, notably the quality of government services, inadequate utility services, corruption, and lack of understanding between government agencies and investors.
During a visit to the Special Economic Zone (BSEZ), foreign investors have called for maintaining investment policies unchanged and eliminating bureaucratic complications, as well as ensuring services such as customs, taxes, and gas and electricity.
Indeed, the purpose of this conference is to break the negative perception that they (foreign investors) have about the investment environment in Bangladesh due to past history. It is also not right to think that investments worth billions of taka will come through a conference.
All the past governments have made various promises to attract foreign investment. They have talked about taking various initiatives. But why hasn’t the problem been solved yet?
During the ousted government’s tenure, there was talk of establishing 100 economic zones, of which only a few have been put into production. It is important to take effective steps to activate the rest. We must remove all obstacles on the way to investment.
