Bangladesh seeks diversified investment from US

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Monday said Bangladesh like to get diversified United States (US) investment along with the US energy sector.

"Currently, US investment is only concentrated in the energy sector, around 90 per cent. We need more investment in the energy sector, especially in the renewable energy sector as Bangladesh is still lagging behind in this sector," he added.

The foreign minister stated these at the media briefing after holding a meeting with the delegation of 27 US businessmen of US-Bangladesh Business Council at Foreign Service academy here.

Terming Bangladesh as 'raising sun' Momen said now Bangladesh has so many opportunities in various sectors like ICT, renewable energy and Blue economy etc.

Pointing to US's annual five trillion dollars investment, Dr Momen seeks more investment here as currently Bangladesh is getting a small number from this huge investment.

The global business leaders of the US from a cross sectors like digital, energy, financial services, insurance, and agriculture are part of the delegation that will stay here till May 11.

The delegation is led by vice-president (business development) of Chevron Jay R Pryor.

In a reply to the question about restoring the US's Generalized System of Preference (GSP) facility for Bangladesh, the foreign minister said, "We are now graduating from Least Developed Countries (LDC) and we rather seek reduction of GSP facilities for other countries who are competitors of Bangladesh instead restoring it (GSP)."

Bangladesh has been left out of the United States' generalized system of preference (GSP) since 2015.

During the meeting Momen also assured the delegation that the more than 6.5 lakh ICT related freelancer workforce is ready here as they have shown interest to invest in the ICT sector here.

US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas briefed the delegation over high-level opportunities for stronger Bangladesh-US economic and commercial ties on Sunday.

Earlier, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas had a brief interaction with the delegation on Sunday.

Senior officers of the US Embassy in Dhaka and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bangladesh shared their briefings on high-level opportunities for stronger Bangladesh-US economic and commercial ties.

The purpose of the Council's first trade mission to Bangladesh is to renew old friendship and explore opportunities for new partnerships, said Jay R Pryor, vice-president (business development), Chevron.

Pryor, also inaugural board chair of the US-Bangladesh Business Council, said the US companies want to contribute to Bangladesh's impressive economic development.