Bangladesh good home for investment: Doraiswami

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram K Doraiswami on Sunday said Bangladesh is a good home for investment and that's why the Indian companies that have already invested are reinvesting in this country.

"The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of Indian companies in Bangladesh is over US$ 3 billion. The investment of Indian companies in Bangladesh is increasing. If you look, the companies that have already invested in the country, they are reinvesting," he said.

The Indian High Commissioner said this while speaking at a seminar for 'Business and Economic Journalists' at Indian High Commission in Dhaka.

Indian High Commission in Dhaka organized the seminar to discuss the immense scope for improving bilateral trade relations between India and Bangladesh.

Vikram K Doraiswami said there is huge trade potential between Bangladesh and India if Dhaka improves the process of ease of doing business and completes the development of connectivity.

"India is giving duty-free access to its market almost all products except 25 products of Bangladesh, including alcohol, to reduce the trade gap between the neighbouring nations since 2011," he added.

Doraiswami said Bangladesh's export does is not dependents on single product rather the export is diversifying, like plastic, food processing, leather and etc.

The data of bi-lateral trade shows that the trade is still in favour of India but the situation is improving year on year as the export of Bangladesh is increasing, he said.

The Indian envoy said now India is the top export destination of Bangladesh with $1279.67 million in fiscal year 2019-20 followed by Japan with $1183.64 million.

During the seminar, Commercial Officer of the High Commission of India Dr Pramyesh Basall presented a paper on 'India-Bangladesh Bilateral Trade and Connectivity, Accelerating Growth and Shared Prosperity'.

In his speech, Pramyesh Basall informed that as per the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), the total registered Indian FDI investment stands at $3.55 billion.

He mentioned that India and Bangladeshi companies have signed agreements worth nearly $10 billion of Indian investments, mainly in the power and energy sectors, during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in April 2017.

He also informed that 355 Indian companies have invested in Bangladesh and with the Indian Economic Zones coming up at Mongla and Mirsarai, Indian FDI is bound to increase manifolds.

Regarding connectivity and its benefit, Pramyesh Basall said Bangladesh's exports to India could increase by 182 per cent and India's exports to Bangladesh by 126 per cent if the countries sign a free trade agreement.

"Improving transport connectivity could increase exports even further, yielding a 297 per cent increase in Bangladesh's exports to India and a 172 per cent increase in India's export to Bangladesh," he noted.

He also said seamless transport connectivity between India and Bangladesh has the potential to increase national income by as much as 17 per cent in Bangladesh and 8 per cent in India.

Basall sees huge potentiality export of Bangladeshi contraction materials like cement and steel to northeastern states of India as huge infrastructure development work is going on.

According to him, Bangladesh can use the river route to reduce transport costs as well as use Sabroom Land Port in south Tripura near Ramgarh of Khagrachari from products can be transported to other northeastern states at cheaper cost.

Railway Adviser of the High Commission of India Anita Barik presented a paper on 'India-Bangladesh Railway Cooperation'.

In her speech, Anita Barik suggested using railway transpiration to reduce transport cost from India as well as India is helping Bangladesh to develop rail connectivity with Bangladesh to reduce the trade gap between the two countries.

She reminded previous rail connectivity between Bangladesh and India that has been suspended during the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965.

"We are emphasising to reconnecting all previous alignments between two countries to make cheaper the bilateral trade," she noted.

Deputy High Commissioner Binoy George and Resident Representative of Exim Bank of India Priyanshu Tiwari also spoke.