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Bangladesh keen on Indian investment

Our Bureau

CALCUTTA, July 14

MR. Humayun Kabir, Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Calcutta, has urged Indian investors to participate in the major disinvestment programme now being taken up in that country.

Mr. Kabir made the plea at an interactive session on investment opportunities in Bangladesh, organised here on Friday by Calcutta Chamber of Commerce. The Bangladesh Government was in the process of divesting its stake in PSUs, in industries such as jute and tea.

There is also scope for investment in backward linkage industries in Bangladesh, particularly in the textile and yarn sector. Bangladesh would need about 240 spinning mills, 476 weaving mills and 474 dyeing-printing mills by 2005 to meet the demand gap o f yarn and finished fabric as also to feed the global RMG (Ready-Made Garments) market, he pointed out.

Bangladesh has already signed bilateral investment treaties with many countries, and an agreement with India was now in the finalisation stages.

India is a major supplier of textiles to Bangladesh, which exported RMGs worth $ 4.2 billions to the US and Europe in 1999-2000. Other potential areas for investment listed were jute goods, leather products, frozen food, infrastructure, power, telecommun ications, electronics and computer software, IT, tourism and agro-based industries.

Bangladesh has also welcomed investments in areas like natural gas and oil. Mr. Kabir said export of gas was an open question, and has already been addressed by the Prime Minister, Ms. Sheikh Hasina, adequately in her recent dialogue with the US Presiden t, Mr. Bill Clinton. Global oil majors such as Shell, Chevron, UNOCOL and Enron have already announced their intention to invest in the gas and oil sectors in Bangladesh.

Despite being a close neighbour, over the last 20 years, Bangladesh has received only $ 238-million worth of Indian investment, against the overall $ 6.42-billion foreign investment received during the last four years. He invited Indian investments in fu lly-owned projects, joint ventures or any other projects involving technology transfer with a provision for third country export, buyback arrangement or even for local consumption.

He informed that several steps had been taken to make foreign investment safe and cited the Foreign Private Investment (Promotion and [Protection) Act of 1980, which accorded protection against nationalisation and expropriation. He said Bangladesh was al so a signatory to the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). OPIC of the US and a member of the WIPO Permanent Committee on development cooperation related to industrial property.