Ambassador Miller to highlight Bangladesh investment opportunities at Bangkok Indo-Pacific Business Forum

US Ambassador in Dhaka Earl Miller is leading a Bangladesh business team to the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Bangkok.

The US embassy said the ambassador will highlight the opportunities for increasing trade and investment between the countries, with an emphasis on the “most pertinent challenges to growth in the digital economy, energy, and infrastructure development”.

The forum organised by the state department will be held on November 4 in the presence of US Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Alice Wells.

Participants will discuss expanding business opportunities in the Indo-Pacific region, trade facilitation, infrastructure development, financing, transparency, and energy sustainability.

The Indo-Pacific strategy is seen as Washington's response to the Chinese ‘String of Pearls’ -- a geopolitical theory on potential Chinese intentions to create a network of Beijing’s military and commercial facilities and relationships along its sea lines of communication extending from the Chinese mainland to Port Sudan in the Horn of Africa.

The sea lines run through several major maritime points such as the Strait of Mandeb, the Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Hormuz, and the Lombok Strait as well as other strategic maritime centres in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives, and Somalia.

Miller, however, recently said the strategy which plays a central role in American foreign policy is not a direct response to China's Belt and Road initiative.

“The Indo-Pacific Strategy is about far more than just infrastructure development, and it does not exclude any nation,” he had said.

“This vision is not about matching China dollar-for-dollar or creating our version of the Belt and Road Initiative. We do not and will not ask any country to choose between the United States and China.”

The US embassy said the Bangkok meeting is the premier US-sponsored business event that will highlight the “benefits of partnering with the dynamic US private sector and the importance of high standard development, transparency, and the rule of law.”

The Indo-Pacific Strategy focuses on three areas:  economics, good governance, and security. Estimates show that this region will require about $26 trillion in infrastructure development by 2030.

The United States, however, remains the largest source of foreign direct investment in the Indo-Pacific region.