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South-east Asia eager to invest in Bangladesh |
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News |
June 14, 2000
Dhaka (UNB) – Thailand wants identification of prospective ventures, Taiwan government-level relations and Japan political stability for their respective industrial investment in Bangladesh while Dhaka is searching for capital.
Their views were expressed as a business delegation from Dhaka paid a weeklong hectic visit to the three Asian countries in a bid to attract foreign investment and boost country’s external trade.
FBCCI President Abdul Awal Mintoo led the delegation to Thailand, Vice President MA Mumin to Taiwan and Director Abdul Haque to Japan. They will submit a report to the Prime Minister about the outcome of their hunt for trade and investment.
“If political instability could be overcome, Bangladesh would be a tremendous destination for investment from Japan,” opined the Japanese entrepreneurs in unison in separate meetings and one-to-one talks.
Uzuhico Uwatoko, Chairman of Japan-Bangladesh Joint Committee for Commercial and Economic Cooperation, sees bureaucratic red tap and power crisis as two other major hurdles.
He thinks the present crisis over multi-national KAFCO will not be a major problem for more Japanese investments, but many others feel it is the key factor that will determine Bangladesh’s investment fate in future.
"Japanese investment in Bangladesh will not be encouraged if KAFCO failed,” said Katsumi Hsara, the former representative of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Dhaka, now based in Tokyo.
Hsara, who had been in Dhaka for three years, identified some other problems for investment. Those included foreign-exchange instability, lack of infrastructure, transport, movement of workers from one factory to another frequently.
Emphasizing political stability, JETRO President Yoshihiko Saeki said even compared with other Southeast Asian Countries, the scale of Japanese investment in Bangladesh is quite small.
According to officials in Tokyo, India got 1.1 percent of Japan's total investment in Asia, Sri Lanka 0.4 percent and Pakistan 0.3 percent. For Bangladesh, it is only a peanut 0.1 percent.
The Japanese, however, see many positive aspects for their investment in Bangladesh. Those include cheap labour, quality workers, fiscal incentives, pragmatic export-import policy, flexible procedures of BEPZA, easy work permit and VISA and potential domestic market.
Eiji Mitsumura, who invested in Chittagong Export Processing Zone, is among those who are impressed with Bangladesh situation and asked his compatriots in the economic superpower country to come to Bangladesh to put their money in rewarding ventures.
“Except hartal, electricity and water, everything is okay to invest Bangladesh,” said the President of motor parts manufacturer MEIJI Industries (Pvt) Ltd in the CEPZ.
But he and other Japanese, who have already invested in Bangladesh, are worried about the US move to allow trade union in the exclusive export- processing zones.
Unlike Japanese, the Taiwanese know a very little about Bangladesh and its investment atmosphere as there is no formal diplomatic relationship between Dhaka and Taipei.
That is why they pursued government representative offices in Taipei and Dhaka for facilitating bilateral trade and their investment in Bangladesh. Their other desires were easy visa service and direct air link.
“I am convinced there are great potentialities and plenty of room for expanding our bilateral trade and investment cooperation,” said Gilbert Bao, Chairman of Bangladesh Committee of Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC), the apex body of trade and chamber bodies in Taiwan.
Businessmen and government of Thailand were convinced that the fields like tourism, textile, health care, education, poultry, processing food and different manufacturing industries could be explored. But they asked for specific proposals.
Thai Deputy Prime Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi, also Commerce Minister, asked FBCCI President Abdul Awal Mintoo to come up with specific proposals for cooperation and investment.
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