By Bhargav TS
Bangladesh has attracted FDI
worth US$ 75 million from India. MoUs to this effect were signed between Indian
companies and delegations from the Board of Investment (BOI), Bangladesh were
signed during the India-Bangladesh Investors’ Meet, organised by the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Chennai recently. Out of the eight
MoUs signed, Hyderabad-based three-wheeler manufacturer ARD Group has joined
hands with Nitol Niloy Group of Bangladesh at an investment of $5 million to
manufacture and distribute auto rickshaws for the Bangladesh market. A $5
million MoU was also signed between Chennai-based Good Lift tyres and FAS
Finance & Investment for the manufacture of tyres.
A $20 million MoU was signed between Arma
Group of companies and UBE industries for infrastructure, $12.5 million was
signed between Euro India Cylinders Limited and Dhaka Cotton Company for the
manufacturing industry. The other MoUs were across sectors including textile,
finance, plastic, infrastructure, IT & technology, software development and
manufacturing.
In his inaugural
address, Dr Syed Abdus Samad, Executive Chairman, Board of
Investment, Bangladesh said, “In order for both the countries to progress, the
future project ventures, which we have planned, will synergise the
India-Bangladesh relationship in the right direction. Bangladesh’s export
growth has been excellent. We have also fought the inflation surge well.
Bangladesh needs more investors to grow. Per capita expenses have become
better, we have maintained our
cent, and consumer attitude has improved, which indicates that these yardsticks
should definitely attract more investors to invest in our market.”
Sharing his goals and vision
for India-Bangladesh, the High Commissioner of People’s Republic of
Bangladesh, Tariq Ahmad Karim said, “In order to perform on par with the
developed world countries as lucrative investment markets, India and Bangladesh
should work together. Bangladesh and India are working together at both
regional and sub regional level and focusing on energy securities, and with
both money and resources being available, India should join hands with
Bangladesh.”
While setting the context for
the Bangladesh-India Partnership initiative, N K Ranganath, Past
Chairman, CII, Tamil Nadu, highlighted, “CII considers Bangladesh to be a
very important partner country. Bangladesh as economy has been posting
consistent growth over the years. With liberal FDI investment regime in South
Asia and facilitative business climate, Bangladesh has been scaling a
consistent GDP growth rate of six per cent over the years. Government of
Bangladesh facilitates and provides all the support to the potential investors
from India. With this encouragement there are 270 direct and joint venture
proposals from India constituting $2.5 billion worth of investment in the major
sectors including Agro-based, Chemical industries, engineering and Service
sector which in turn have created 51,653 jobs in Bangladesh. It can be believed
that Bangladesh can become a hub for North-East region in the near future with
the fructification of many concrete Joint ventures between India and
Bangladesh.”
Speaking on the
occasion, Matlub Ahmad, President, India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce
& Industry (IBCCI), said “With the growing awareness on Bangladesh
emerging as an attractive destination for investment on the world map, Board of
Investment, Bangladesh (BOI) is happy to partner with CII to promote business
ties and investment opportunities in both the countries. This cooperation
would lead to better prosperity of both the countries by tapping into a large
pool of human resources while providing a huge boost to the export from
Bangladesh to India while tackling issues of trade imbalances.”
Proposing Tamil Nadu’s
contribution, M Velmurugan, Executive Vice Chairman, Tamil Nadu Guidance
Bureau, said, “Tamil Nadu is ranked one among the top three industrial states
in India. Chennai is considered as one among the top ten auto clusters of the
world and has been performing consistently well in the automobile sector, which
potentially reflects further investment opportunities for Bangladesh.”
In her concluding remarks,
Indrani Kar, Deputy Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry, said,
“Winds of change are blowing in India and Bangladesh. With India retaining its
competitive edge in the industrial sectors, India and Bangladesh have to work
collaboratively by discovering ground breaking avenues to perform. Therefore,
CII has tremendous opportunities to work
in Bangladesh with growing potential for investment avenues.”
Asked about the potential of
two-wheeler market in Bangladesh, Mr Ahmed said, “Bangladesh is also keen on
tapping two-wheeler manufacturers also. The market size for two-wheelers per year
is around 500,000 units, with a 20 per cent growth projected year-on-year. A
delegation from Hero MotoCorp had recently visited Bangladesh. The company had
previously expressed interest in setting up assembly units in Bangladesh,
currently has a few CKD assembly operations through dealerships.”
Among
India’s neighbour, Bangladesh occupies a special position not only because of
India’s role in its liberalisation but also its geographical proximity
complement with India. The delegations echoed that Bangladesh has a winning
combination of competitive market, business friendly environment and
competitive cost structure.
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