Release of roadmap will boost investor confidence, hopes foreign advisor

The interim government’s goal is to hand over power to an elected government as soon as possible, Md Touhid Hossain says

The political “uncertainty” created by the changeover of power has caused foreign investors and expatriates to lose confidence in Bangladesh due to the lack of “financial security”, but the interim government wants to quickly restore their confidence with a “roadmap”, says Foreign Affairs Advisor Md Touhid Hossain.

Touhid made the remarks during his speech as the chief guest at the inauguration of the Branding Bangladesh World Conference series organised by the Centre for NRB (non-resident Bangladeshis) at a hotel in Dhaka on Saturday.

"When someone sees political uncertainty, they are not encouraged to come and invest,” he said.

"That is why a difficult task lies ahead of us and we hope a roadmap will be released very soon. Then they will quickly gain confidence once again."

The advisor said: "There are foreign investors - including NRBs – who will invest their personal funds. But they will not come, even if they are NRBs, without certainty. This is very natural because you must see that your money is secure. That is undeniable.”

“We are looking into it and our goal is to hand over power to an elected government through an election. We know that it should be done as soon as possible and so the government is working towards this goal.”

Although he did not specify when the “roadmap” would come, he said: “When a roadmap is released, many people will feel confident and investment will come. If investment does not come, we will not be able to continue. We have a large number of people entering the labour market. We cannot simply send them abroad. We have to increase employment for them in our country. For that, investment is needed.”

“Of course, you will keep an eye out for political certainty. We hope that we will be able to emerge from this uncertainty very soon. Then the investment environment will improve further and investment will come in. Employment will also increase in the country.”

Four Norwegians of Bangladeshi origin and a Bangladeshi citizen were harassed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Wednesday night. A video of one of the Norwegians being beaten until they were bloodied went viral on social media.

Without going into details, the advisor alluded to the incident: “Harassment at missions, at the airport, especially at the airport… I can tell you this - even the incident that happened recently, action will be taken on it immediately.

“I am sure that the culprit will be punished. Because I can say this much, my colleagues on the Advisory Council, everyone is very aware of this and they want this matter to be improved considerably.”

Touhid said, “I know that my acquaintances have also faced harassment at different times. This should stop. A few days ago we opened a lounge for NRBs who came from abroad. I know that this is not enough. We have a lot more to do.”

“I admit that insufficient measures have been taken to stop harassment. We are trying to protect people from this kind of harassment as much as possible and to punish those responsible for it. We will continue to do so.”