Bangladesh’s graduation from LDC to bring opportunities for Danish businesses: Speakers

Bangladesh's eligibility to graduate from the least developed countries (LDC) group to a developing nation can offer “tremendous opportunities” for Danish investors and businessmen in the coming days.

The Bangladesh Embassy in Denmark said speakers made this comment at a business seminar organised by the embassy at local Asia House on Tuesday in Copenhagen.

Potential Danish investors, CEOs of the business houses, civil society and media representatives, expatriate Bangladeshi entrepreneurs, diplomats, and high government officials participated at the event to explore seizing opportunities offered by a new Bangladesh.

The seminar started with screening of the UN secretary-general’s congratulatory video message lauding Bangladesh’s achievement on graduation from Least Developed Country status.

Asia House Executive Director Ambassador Susanne Rumohr Hækkerup moderated the event. 

Keynote speaker Camilla Brückner, UNDP Regional Director for Nordic countries, lauded Bangladesh’s impressive success stories and graduation from LDC group. She stressed increased private sector- driven investments and more inclusiveness to achieve SDGs and to keep the momentum of the graduation process.

A clear understanding on business practices in Bangladesh aiming to provide a first-hand impression of what it means for doing business there was presented by Ambassador Ulrik Federspiel, Senior Advisor at Haldor Topsøe which has a substantial investment in KAFCO.

Topsøe, who has long experience in doing business with Bangladesh since 1978, shared his experience.

Ambassador Muhammad A Muhith presented Bangladesh’s thriving and resilient economy highlighting the growth of the recent decades.

He urged the Danish investors “to seize the abundant opportunities for Danish businesses interested to participate in Bangladesh's graduation process in the forms of Foreign Direct Investments, Joint Venture or Public-Private Partnerships, in a win-win situation.”

He invited more investments in green growth, including renewable energy and energy efficiency, where Denmark has unparalleled expertise in and Bangladesh has a huge demand for meeting the challenges to implement the SDGs.

The Danish investors and business leaders expressed a renewed sense of interest about Bangladesh and their sincere interest to take advantage of the opportunities generated by the graduation of Bangladesh as a developing country.

Bangladesh, which has been an LDC since 1975, recently fulfilled the UN’s current criteria to graduate from a ‘least developed country’ to a ‘developing country’, sparking conversation and debate across the country.

Bangladesh also recently advanced from a low-income country to a low-middle income country on the World Bank’s scale.

According to the UN, a country is eligible to graduate from the LDC category if it has a gross national income (GNI) per capita of $1,230 or above for three years, a Human Assets Index (HAI) of 66 or above and an Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI) of 32 or below.

Bangladesh has fulfilled the three conditions by a huge margin. Bangladesh's current per capita income is $1,610. The HAI is 72.9, while the EVI is 25.

The GNI per capita measures the dollar value of a country’s total income in a year divided by its population. The HAI is a composite index that accounts for education and health.

UN Assistant Secretary-General Haoliang Xu during a visit to Bangladesh said the graduation would send “strong message to investors that Bangladesh is a right place for investments.”

Bangladesh will undergo a few years of observation and can officially graduate to a developing country by 2024 at the earliest after the next review in 2021.