Make BoI pro-active to woo investment: Germany

German Ambassador Albrecht Conze has said there are ‘too many lost opportunities’ for Bangladesh and suggested ‘pro-active’ role of the government.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 8 April 2013, 08:19 AM
Updated : 8 April 2013, 09:05 AM
“Investment goes where the conditions are interesting. Sometimes one must ask for investment to come, one must lure in investment,” he said on Monday speaking at a Bangladesh-German Chamber of Commerce of Industries’ (BGCCI) ‘business launch’.
The luncheon meeting was organised to announce its partnership with the Messe Dusseldorf GmbH, one of the largest trade fair orgainsers in the world.
He wondered if a major German car-producing company announces to the world that within the next 10 or 15 years, it will have 50 billion euros to spend on new factories, what will a normal reaction of a country like Bangladesh be?
“The Board of Investment would immediately look at that news, compose a delegation and sent the delegation immediately to the headquarters of the company in Germany, trying to explain why Bangladesh is better place than Myanmar, eastern India, maybe western Thailand.”
He, however, lamented that “the Board of Investment to the best of my knowledge has not had such an idea, has not brought about such an initiative and I think it’s a lost opportunity.”
He said a famous German entrepreneur ‘tried for years to set up something in Bangladesh and he has given up’.
“It’s because of red tape.”
Ambassador Conze said one needs ‘a proactive stance’ of making oneself ‘attractive to foreign business’.
“Bangladesh has comparative advantages that many people are not aware of it in the West,” he said.
He said he was trying his best from his side, the Chamber was also doing its best, “but we also need pro-active role of Bangladesh government and its Board of Investment”.
The German envoy said Bangladesh should look at more than six percent economic growth and even a double digit frowth. For that, he said it would need “more transparency, it would need to say goodbye to well established practices of very close ties between the government of whatever party and business”.
Ambassador Conze said Bangladesh-German Chamber in coming weeks and months had “enormous role to play in trying to ease the way to the future that does not seem easy right now”.
He referred to the nine days of shutdown in March that he said brought ‘probably $2 billion economic loss to the country’. In the nine months towards the election he said the figure will be $18 billion which is almost the figure the country’s main economic driver readymade garments earn a year.
He, however, said he remained ‘optimistic’ because there were ‘too much brain and good intentions in this country for not letting it go the wrong way’.
The Messe Düsseldorf GmbH has appointed Bangladesh-German Chamber its exclusive member for the Bangladesh market.
Under this new deal, BGCCI will now offer comprehensive services related to all trade fairs, including promotion of all trade shows in Düsseldorf, visa application support for exhibitors and visitors, entrance ticket sales and organisation of visitor delegations, said a media release.