Chief Representative's Speech

Good afternoon, Assalamu-Alaikum,

At first, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of participants for joining this webinar today, jointly organized by Prime Minister's Office of Bangladesh, International Finance Corporation and JICA. I also thank all key figures of Bangladesh government as well as H.E Ambassador Mr. Naoki Ito and Ms. Wendy Werner from IFC Bangladesh, and particularly to Japanese investors who are working tirelessly to promote Japanese investment in Bangladesh.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Bangladesh is emerging as a highly competitive destination for investments. Its competitiveness includes demographic dividends, lower wage level, large domestic market, robust macroeconomic management, and so forth. The country is a gateway not only to South Asia but also to South-East Asia. Bangladesh's GDP growth in last few years has averaged around 8 percent. Now, this is the fastest-growing economy in the Asia-Pacific region.

Over the past five years, Japan has more than doubled its support for Bangladesh. One of our focuses is economic infrastructure development. Notable among these are Matarbari deep sea port and expansion of International Airport (HSIA) in Dhaka, which are expected to become logistic hubs in the country. JICA, under Japanese government, has also assisted the power sector of the country, which also contributed to the drastic reduction of power outage. Furthermore, we have also assisted the health sector development. This pandemic of Covid-19 made us understood that the health and medical facilities are also a part of essential infrastructure for foreign investors.

Bangladesh is very promising for Japanese investors. Just a decade ago, there were merely 82 firms from Japan operating in the country. As of December 2019, around 300 Japanese companies were conducting business in Bangladesh. Let us look at the neighboring countries. In 2017, the number of Japanese firms is 438 in Myanmar, and 309 in Cambodia. It means Bangladesh is slightly behind those rivals in terms of the number of Japanese companies. We know, in the region, there is a severe race among countries trying to attract more investment from foreign countries. Now the pandemic of the novel coronavirus is bringing new confusion and complication to this competition. Nevertheless, considering the great potential of the country, Bangladesh can be very competitive through introducing powerful set of laws and policies that are attractive to investors.

The investment from Japan is expected to be further accelerated after the completion of the Special Economic Zone being constructed in Araihazar area of Narayanganj district. For the purpose of developing and operating this economic zone, Sumitomo Corporation has established a Special Purpose Company (SPC) with Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) last year. JICA is supporting this "Japanese Economic Zone" by financing for the land development works as well as other necessary infrastructures. We expect the land development work to be completed by the autumn of 2021, followed by the start of land sub-leasing to Japanese Investors.

Furthermore, JICA has been supporting BEZA to establish One Stop Service (OSS) Center, which will drastically simplify the process required for starting business in Economic Zones.

JICA is also offering direct finance to private business in Bangladesh, which we call Private Sector Investment Finance, PSIF. PSIF is a IFC-like function of JICA. In Bangladesh we funded Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) project, a medical college hospital in Dhaka, and power plants. We expect this PSIF window will materialize more and more PPP projects in Bangladesh in near future.

Ladies and gentlemen;
If you ask business persons in Japan a question `which country is the Asia's last frontier for investors', I suppose most of them will answer ‘it is Myanmar'. However, after listening to the speakers' presentations and the Bangladeshi Government's pro-investor message, as well as clear commitments to the better investment climate today, you may change this ‘fixed' recognition. The government is working very hard. With the strong initiative and efforts of the Government, Bangladesh, the long-standing friend of Japan, can be, and will be, I believe, the real new frontier for Japanese investment.

I thank the organizers, particularly Ms. Werner as well as the staff of IFC Tokyo, for giving me the opportunity to address the webinar and hope the deliberations of the day will provide insightful suggestions in attracting investments from Japan.
Thank you very much for your kind listening.