Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon the concerned people to increase investment by utilizing the population and land of the country. The country's economy needs to move forward in the face of the ongoing coronavirus crisis and we need to make the investment environment attractive, she said.
She made the remarks at a meeting of the governing board of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) in a video conference on Thursday (August 8). She gave the directive in a video conference from his official residence Ganobhaban to the Prime Minister's Office.
Highlighting various aspects of trade animosity in the global pandemic of coronavirus crisis, the Prime Minister said that everything is becoming a problem because of corona. But we need to focus on how to move our country's economy forward through this problem and make our investment environment attractive.
We’ve got a push of coronavirus, that’s right, she said. But now there is another opportunity. We need to increase investment, there are opportunities for that. Industrial factories are now closed in many countries. We have population, we have land and we have other facilities. In this opportunity we can and will make the investment more attractive; we have that opportunity.
In 2008, we announced that we would build a digital Bangladesh… to make business, education, everything easier, she said. Because we have been able to make digital Bangladesh, today we are able to hold a meeting of the BIDA Governing Board even in such an unusual situation.
Today we have the investment environment. Coronavirus is causing problems in all countries. But we have to focus on how to move our economy forward through this problem. We have to work towards that. We need to make the investment environment attractive. We have implemented the MDGs of the UN very efficiently. Now we have SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) and we are working hard to implement it.
The Prime Minister said, we are already focusing on a number of issues. Infrastructure development is one of them because without infrastructure development, investment can never come. We are working with appropriate measures to improve communication from roads to waterways, railways and airways. There was a problem with electricity but today we have electricity surplus. The problem with gas is our own gas extraction system and we are also importing gas.
People are beginning to reap the rewards of the steps we have taken to invest. In the case of investment, we have given the benefit of tax holidays; we are establishing economic zones all over Bangladesh. We have established 100 economic zones so that the development is not centered in one place but spread in the whole of Bangladesh. We have taken that action. There will be easy domestic and foreign investment. Workers can also be found very easily. The Prime Minister said that we are also giving training.
Sheikh Hasina said tax concessions are being given to accelerate industrialization. We are offering various opportunities for importing capital equipment. Investment has already increased as a result of our initiative. This is an improvement that, besides coronavirus, we could have moved on. That's exactly what happened to the coronavirus. Opportunities have been created again. We have to keep that in mind. Therefore, we have to take measures so that the investment comes to our country keeping in view who wants to invest.
We have taken many steps to expand our business.
We need to bring in more investment, it’s an opportunity, he added. In many countries the industry is now closed. We have population, we have land and we have other facilities. In this opportunity we can and will make the investment more attractive; we have that opportunity. We can use that opportunity to build Bangladesh, a true Sonar Bangla.