Bangladesh gets higher FDI in 2018 Power, textile sectors receive larger amount

Monirul Alam of DOT
Bangladesh received higher volume of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in the just-concluded year of 2018 compared to the previous year, the provisional data of Bangladesh Bank (BB) says.
The country fetched USD 2580.44 million between January and December 2018. The FDI inflow in the previous year (2017) was USD 2454.81 million, the BB data shows.
Therefore, the rise in FDI inflow in 2018 was 125.63 million compared to 2017.
Highest volume of FDI, USD 446.61 million, originated from China to Bangladesh followed by Singapore USD 113.64 million, South Korea USD 82.04 million, United Kingdom USD 77.66 million, Hong Kong USD 76.14 million, USA (United States of America) USD 55.97 million, The Netherlands USD 55.81 million and Taiwan USD 46.68 million.
Significant volume of FDIs also entered the country from Mauritius, Malaysia, Japan, India, British Virgin Islands, Sri Lanka, UAE, Switzerland, Bermuda, Thailand, Denmark and France.
The power sector received highest volume of foreign investment followed by textile, banking, leather, food, trading, construction, gas, petroleum, telecommunication, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, insurance, fertilizer, metal and machinery, agriculture and fishing.
Economists and business leaders have opined that the rising inflow of foreign investments would continue this year subject to political stability. Besides, the government’s initiatives of establishing SEZs (Special Economic Zones) and infrastructure improvements would further create positive impression among foreign investors.
They said the initiative of establishing OSS (One Stop Service) centre would also attract foreign investors.
The OSS is aimed to provide all the services, ranging from business registration to utility connections leading towards starting commercial operation, to foreign investors from a single office. It is alleged that establishment of the OSS is apparently showing slow progress.
At the existing arrangement, a foreign investor needs to visit multiple offices for business registration, environment and tax clearance, utility connections and obtaining import-export approval procedures. All of these requires a lot of time.