Home ›› 29 Aug 2020 ›› World Biz
Bangladesh has sought stronger trade and investment ties with Singapore noting that Bangladesh is likely to recover faster than other countries from the impact of coronavirus pandemic.
"Even with the ongoing crisis, the country is expected to recover faster than any other peer economies," said Prime Minister's Private Industry and Investment Adviser Salman F Rahman.
He said Bangladesh has been exhibiting a strong economic growth prior to the pandemic.
Salman F Rahman came up with the statement while addressing a webinar titled "Business Opportunities and Investment Insights in Bangladesh.”
GlobalConnect@SBF, an initiative of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) together with Enterprise Singapore, Bangladesh High Commission in Singapore, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), Public-Private Sector Federation (PPPA) and FBCCI organized the webinar.
The webinar provided an overview of Bangladesh's economic outlook, current ongoing developments and present business opportunities available in Bangladesh and the transition towards the post COVID-19 “new normal”.
Md Mustafizur Rahman, Bangladesh High Commissioner to Singapore and Prasoon Mukherjee, Vice Chairman of SBF South-Asia Business also delivered speeches during the webinar, where Sheikh Fazle Fahim, the President of FBCCI, moderated the Public Sector Plenary session.
Recalling the coordinated and comprehensive efforts by the government, FBCCI President Sheikh Fazle Fahim said the country’s economy is demonstrating a recovery trend with positive growth in July 2020 in trade -both export and import, remittance and foreign reserve.
“Despite the COVID 19 crisis, we have been able to post a GDP growth of 5.24 percent, remittance growth of 5.4 percent and forex reserve growth of 10 percent in FY19-20,” he added.
Ensuring potential investors of Bangladesh as a favourable option, Sheikh Fazle Fahim further said, “With coordinated and comprehensive efforts we are confident in our economy.”
Md Sirazul Islam, Executive Chairman of BIDA, highlighted numerous potential sectors such as agro-processing sector, light-engineering sector, technology for investment.
“We’ve been significantly improving the ease-of-doing business in Bangladesh with the introduction of our One-Stop Service (OSS) for the investors, availing more than hundreds of services from a wide range of agencies,” he added.
Ariful Houqe, Director of BIDA; Dr Masrur Reaz, Chairman of Policy Exchange, Samuel Lee, Assistant Vice President PSA Marine; Syed Nasim Manzur, Director of Apex Group; Syed Farhad Ahmed, Managing Director and CEO of Aamra companies, among others, presented insightful information of the opportunities of FDI for the economy of Singapore in Bangladesh.
