Attracting investments crucial for fostering growth: Speakers

Attracting investments in Bangladesh is crucial for fostering growth, creating employment, and for tackling the potential fallout of the 4th industrial revolution, speakers said at an event on Thursday.

They made the remark at a webinar organised to mark the partnership between LightCastle Partners – a Dhaka based consulting firm, and Netherlands-based Larive International.

Larive International is a network of independent business development advisory firms in 24 high-growth markets throughout Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey and Sub-Saharan Africa.

LightCastle has recently entered into a strategic agreement with Larive International, and the partnership was formally announced at the event attended by senior representatives from the development, private and the public sector.

Under the agreement, LightCastle will become the exclusive member of the Larive Group in Bangladesh. Both the organisations will jointly provide professional services like business intelligence, market entry & growth strategy, M&A advisory and post investment services for interested investors in the country.

Attending as a special guest, Bangladesh's Ambassador to the Netherlands M Riaz Hamidullah said, "As Bangladesh economy surges, within global supply and value chains, the Dutch business sees a significant scope to partner with Bangladeshi peers.

"The Larive-LightCastle tie-up thus stands to complement our efforts; and contributes to uplifting Bangladesh's standing and credential amongst international investors and facilitates market entry process for the potential Dutch investors."

Davinia Lamme, managing director of Larive International, expressed her optimism about the strategic partnership with LightCastle. "By joining forces with the LightCastle team, we are well-positioned to support our client base in this fast-growing market," she said.

"Having already worked with Larive on several projects in Bangladesh, we are delighted to formalise our alliance," said Bijon Islam, CEO of LightCastle, adding, "We are thrilled about the partnership and look forward to serve the increasing number of foreign investors in Bangladesh."

The webinar was organised by LightCastle Partners and moderated by Ivdad Ahmed Khan Mojlish, managing director of the firm.  Matthias Brienen, director of the Larive International, also spoke at the event.

Zahedul Amin, director of Consulting Services at the LightCastle, presented the keynote paper.

Both the organisations have agreed to co-organise a series of public events in the near future for promoting investment opportunities in Bangladesh for international investors.