DHAKA: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday urged local and foreign entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh. You all can invest here. We want to provide necessary facilities to all the local and foreign investors.”There is ample scope to invest in every sector, including the economic zones and export processing zones, she said. The premier made the call while addressing the inaugural ceremony of Bepza International Investors’ Summit 2018 at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital. She said no other country perhaps can ensure such an excellent investment-friendly atmosphere.
We’re providing maximum facilities, including cent percent repatriation of capital and profit and tax holidays.” Hasina said Bangladesh also has overcome the hurdles in the fields of electricity, energy, roads and other infrastructure facilities. She said Bepza has already turned the country’s EPZs into attractive destinations for investors from home and abroad. Hasina said the country’s power generation capacity has increased to 16,350 megawatts (MW) from a mere 3,200 MW. Investment in Bepza has doubled while export increased by 2.5 times from 2009 to 2017, she said. She said some 468 industries are in operation in eight EPZs set up on 2,307.27 acres of land. About 5 lakh Bangladeshis have been working in the EPZs and 64 percent of them are women. Some 283,620 new jobs have been created in the EPZs in the last nine years, she said. Hasina said the EPZs under Bepza are contributing about 20 percent of the total national exports and foreign investment to the economy. Due to investment-friendly policies, investors from 38 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, India, the USA and the UK, have been producing world famous brand items in the factories of EPZs, she added. The prime minister said Bepza has undertaken an initiative to establish low-carbon green zones. “Our target is to set up industries and increase industrial production protecting our farmlands.” She urged the workers of factories not to harm their factories at the instigation of any vested quarter.
