Doing business with Bangladesh would be a good choice: PM Sheikh Hasina assures US investors

"I can assure you that doing business with Bangladesh would be a much attractive choice for you," she said.

The Prime Minister was addressing a roundtable discussion with US Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) at Hotel Waldorf Astoria here this afternoon.

Heads and CEOs of as many as 27 large companies of the US, including president and CEO of BCIU Peter J. Tichansky, President and CEO of Skypower Global Kerry Adler, Vice President of Amerian Power Corporation Sanjay Agarwal, CEO of Zephyr Management Thomas Barry, Executive Vice President of Mastercard International Edward Brandt and Chief Development Officer of Excelerate Energy Daniel Bustos joined the roundtable.

Sheikh Hasina thanked the BCIU for its continued interest in Bangladesh saying as one of the fastest growing economies in South Asia, Bangladesh offers a competing enabling environment for business and investment. "We have ensured consistency in all our relevant policies," she said.

The roundtable was attended, among others, by Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, PM's advisor on ICT Affairs Sajeeb Wajed Joy, Expatriates' Welfare Minister Nurul Islam, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Engineer Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain, PM's Advisors Dr Moshiur Rahman and Dr Gowher Rizvi, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shariar Alam, Bangladesh Ambassador to the US M Ziauddin, Bangladesh's Permanent Representative to the UN Dr Abdul Momen and President of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry Abdul Matlub Ahmad.

Sheikh Hasina said the strength of Bangladesh economy is its prudent macroeconomic policy and leadership. "Today, Bangladesh is the fourth fastest growing economy globally. Bangladesh economy maintains a sustained growth of 6.2 percent during the past six years and now the country is approaching the seven percent growth club."

The Prime Minister said over the past six years, the size of Bangladesh economy has become almost doubled. Nominal GDP per capita stands at 1314 US dollars. Last fiscal's foreign trade volume is over 70 billion dollars, with global exports at 31.2 billion dollars, she said.

Last month, she said, the foreign currency reserves surpassed 26 billion dollars mark while external debt is just around 10 percent of GDP. "Over 90 percent of the country's annual public expenditure is now met from domestic resources. Coupled with growth of SME sector, rural economy is thriving," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh is fast making an economic transformation. From subsistence agriculture, the country is now becoming a mechanized, process-oriented, diversified and value-added one.

Production of cereals, poultry, livestock, fisheries are growing fast in spite of climate change challenges while technology and innovation is hallmark of present-day agriculture, she said.

Expressing her government's firm commitment to make the workplaces secure and safe, the Prime Minister said, "We want to ensure dignity and well-being of all workers."

In this regard, she mentioned about the collaboration between the government and the entrepreneurs to uphold rights of RMG workers and ensure their occupational safety and health, pay well and in time. Bangladesh's RMG sector is working in that direction to reach global exports to 50 billion dollars by 2020, she said.

Highlighting potentials of the pharmaceutical sector in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina said local production now meets 97 percent of Bangladesh's domestic medicine requirements.

She said Bangladesh's pharma products are exported to 83 countries. In a breakthrough, the industry now produces bio-tech products and Active Pharma Ingredients. Bangladesh is fast emerging as a major global hub for high quality, low-cost generic medicines, she said.

Shipbuilding is the latest tag line from Bangladesh, the Prime Minister said, adding that the shipbuilders have rapidly caught global attention by making world class light to medium size vessels.

The Prime Minister said her government is striving for building a "Digital Bangladesh" where knowledge in ICT and related industry is expanding rapidly. Thousands of applications made in Bangladesh are running on iPhones, Samsung Galaxy, other Android and Blackberry phones.

"Another hundred million came through young Bangladeshi freelancers. Every year, around 20 thousand young IT graduates are joining the sector," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh has adopted a competitive and innovative policy and regulatory frameworks for telecom sector, ICT and related service sectors.

"Cost of internet bandwidth has fallen six times over the past six years, while internet penetration has increased manifold. Digital Centres were constructed across the country to provide nearly 200 public services to people from their doorstep without any intermediation," she said.

The Prime Minister said the government has put on track development of five blocks of an ICT-focused industrial park which are expecting to go to operation by 2018.

"Working to develop a few more IT Parks around other cities across Bangladesh is going on. Many of our friends in the West estimate that return on investments in Bangladesh is a few times higher than in their own countries," she said.

Pointing out the expanding relations with the US in a number of areas and ways, Sheikh Hasina said the two countries share a same set of values and ethos, freedom, democracy, human rights, inclusion, equality, pluralism and secularism.

"Though we are at diverse levels of development and endowment, we celebrate diversity, espouse tolerance and support women empowerment. We believe in right-based societies. Free media and enterprise are our hallmarks. We share common stance on addressing terrorism and countering violent extremism across societies," she said.

The Prime Minister said the relations between Bangladesh and the US demands that the two countries cooperate more for the twin purposes of "shared interests" and "mutual benefits".

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh has rolled in 18 Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Japan and India have taken up two each for development while China is developing another, she said.

"Licenses have already been given to three more private SEZs and over the next five years, we plan to develop 100 such SEZs across Bangladesh," she said.

The Prime Minister noted that the SEZs offer competitive incentive package like the ones in ASEAN. Anyone can come as a "developer" and "operator" of the entire SEZ or, just as an "investor" in these SEZs, she said.

Mentioning the successfully settlement of maritime border disputes with Myanmar and India, she said the settlement paved the ways for investors' deeper engagement. "Bangladesh's offshore is now open for Blue Ocean marine resources exploration," she said.

Sheikh Hasina said the private sector of Bangladesh has shown a great resilience. "They are increasingly becoming global...they will have an important role to play in Bangladesh's emergence as a middle-income country," she said.

By several indicators and assessments, she said, Bangladesh is second competitive in South Asia in terms of "doing business".