The Future of Asia 2017: Bangladesh invites investors

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam has urged Asian investors to come to Bangladesh and use the advantage of both geographical locations and the government’s support.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 6 June 2017, 04:28 PM
Updated : 6 June 2017, 06:09 PM

He was speaking at a panel discussion in Tokyo on Tuesday at ‘The Future of Asia 2017” conference.

The Nikkei Corporation organised the international conference with the participation of leaders from the Asian countries.

The state minister highlighted Bangladesh’s efforts to be a middle income ‘Digital Bangladesh’ by 2021 and a developed nation by 2041.

Indicating the geostrategic location of Bangladesh, he mentioned that Bangladesh is a “gateway” to the South and the Southeast Asia.

He informed the audience that Bangladesh was developing 100 Economic Zones, which will offer exclusive investment opportunities for foreign investors.

He also stressed the “importance” of strong regional cooperation among the countries of South Asia.

Citing the example of an intra-regional trade of ASEAN, which is more than 25 percent of ASEAN’s total trade, he said on the contrary intra-regional trade of SAARC was only about 5 percent.

He also highlighted the sub-regional cooperation and said Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan were already taking special initiative to enhance connectivity among the countries.

He said if the markets in the region “could be effectively connected, growth potentials of the region would increase manifold”.

He particularly mentioned the instruction of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to re-establish the pre-1965 connectivity among the countries of the region.

The prime minister of Vietnam, prime minister of Laos, deputy prime minister of Thailand, foreign minister of Mongolia, former prime minister of Malaysia Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and former prime minister of Singapore GohChok Tong were present among the participants.

On the sidelines, the state minister met Secretary General of ASEAN Le Luong Minh and National Security Adviser of Myanmar Thaung Tun, the foreign ministry said.