Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged Indian companies to engage in infrastructure projects, manufacturing, energy, and transportation in her country. During her four-day state visit to India, Hasina made a pitch to Indian investors on Wednesday at a business event hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).
Bangladesh is uniquely located to export its products to North East India, Bhutan and South East Asian countries and several initiatives have been taken to increase connectivity,” she explained.
Speaking at a CII conference of chosen CEOs, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, I would urge Indian businessmen to examine possible investments in infrastructure projects, manufacturing, energy, and transportation sectors. By decreasing time, cost, and resources, Indian investors and corporate houses can establish enterprises in Bangladesh through Buy-Back arrangements.
She went on to say, Bangladesh is uniquely located to enable Indian investors to export their products to not only the Northeastern states of India, but also to Nepal, Bhutan, and to South East Asian countries”.
Hasina emphasised that Bangladesh has the region’s most liberal investment regime, with a wide range of facilities, attractive incentive policies, and consistent reforms.
She stated that 100 Special Economic Zones and 28 High-Tech Parks are now being built for industrial diversity, employment, production, and export. She mentioned that two special Special Economic Zones were being built for Indian investors in Mongla and Mirsarai.
I would encourage the companies represented here today to invest there. She emphasised that it would pave the way for harnessing the goodwill of the two friendly countries and bringing economic prosperity to the region.
According to G Kishan Reddy, Minister of Development of the North Eastern Region, Tourism, and Culture, bilateral trade has increased dramatically in recent years.
“Exports from Bangladesh, for the first time, have touched USD 2 billion this year. India is now the largest export destination for Bangladesh in Asia”, he added.
The minister mentioned various potential areas of cooperation between India and Bangladesh, including fashion fibre and design, handicraft and handloom, food processing, agro commodities, and so on.
Energy and infrastructure, as well as how connection may be exploited for shared prosperity, were emphasised by CII President Sanjiv Bajaj. He also stated that India’s experience with Digital India could be exploited to better sync it with Digital Bangladesh in order to provide more digital and financial inclusivity.
Bangladesh is a developing ICT power, and enterprises on both sides should form partnerships in newer technologies like nanotechnology, robots, the Internet of Things, cyber security, and artificial intelligence, among others, he said.