Bangladesh is hoping to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) of $2.5 billion from India in the next three years, the country’s top industry leaders said.
“In 42 years of our independence we have received only $2.5 billion FDI from India. Now with greater trade ties with India, we want to attract FDI worth $2.5 billion from India in three years,” said Matlub Ahmad, President, India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry, who is also a top Bangladeshi industrialist.
“In this year’s budget we have targeted to achieve 7.2 per cent growth as compared to 6 per cent for the last many years. For this, we need lot of investment from foreign countries and our main hope is from India. The foreign investor can invest alone or in a joint venture with a local Bengali partner,” said Syed Abdus Samad, Executive Chairman, Board of Investment, Bangladesh. A trade delegation from Bangladesh is at present visiting India to attract investment of $186.5 million in 23 identified joint venture projects.
The country is seeking partnerships across 13 important sectors of agro processing, automobiles, textiles, chemicals, plastics, light engineering, ICT, pharmaceuticals, hospital & medical equipment, tourism, professional services and gems & jewellery. The Confederation of Indian Industry is helping to search for partners from India.
MoUs for investment of over $23 million were signed in Mumbai here on Thursday and the delegation will visit Chennai and Kolkata to woo investment.