Indian companies keen to invest in Bangladesh

Indian companies have shown keen interest to invest in Bangladesh in the areas of energy, healthcare and education.

They observed that Bangladesh's market size is gradually becoming larger and the connectivity between the two neighbours is getting stronger.

Chairman and Managing Director of West Bengal's Desun Hospital Sajal Dutta said they are looking for land in four places – Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet and Khulna – for establishing specialised hospitals of cardiac, cancer, neurology and gastro.

"Our target is to establish the hospitals in five years and the investment of Tk1,000 crore," he said at a press conference organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) at Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka on Sunday.

ICC Director General Dr Rajeev Singh led a delegation of 85 Indian companies to Bangladesh for the India-Bangladesh Business Leaders' Meet where the Indian and Bangladeshi businesses discussed business opportunities.

According to the Indian government data, annually some 2.5 million Bangladeshis go to India for healthcare.

According to an ICC handout, the healthcare market in Bangladesh is projected to be $14 billion this year, making it a huge opportunity for the Indian healthcare sector.

Sajal Dutta said India provides high-quality healthcare service, while Bangladeshis have a high demand for this. On the other hand, many Indian students also study medicine in Bangladesh.

"Thus, there is a huge scope of collaboration between the two countries in this sector."

Prashant Sharma, managing director at the Charnock Hospital, said Bangladesh can focus on nursing education as the profession is in high demand globally.

The Indian education entrepreneurs said India too provides high-quality education and Bangladesh has a high demand for this. Especially, they said, India can provide quality education in IT, agriculture and technical education.

They said there appears to be not much on-campus jobs placement programme in Bangladesh and the Indian educational institutions can have collaborations with Bangladeshi institutions towards this end.

Punjab-based Guru Kashi University's director (corporate affairs) Dr B Abdul Rafeeq said they have a long-term investment plan in Bangladesh for education.

"We have opportunities to invest in the Bangladesh government cooperates and coordinates with us. We want to establish a group of institutions, universities in Bangladesh," he told reporters.

According to the ICC, the higher education market size of Bangladesh is $4.6 billion.

An official of an Indian public sector hydropower company, NHPC Ltd, said Bangladesh has a huge demand for power, and given the climate change aspects, hydropower will be an important component in energy.

Bhutan and India's Northeast can also be an important source of hydropower, he said, adding that the company is already producing hydropower in Nepal and can eventually import it to Bangladesh.

Business delegations from Bangladesh and India also discussed the business potential of agricultural products between the two countries.

They said there are still tariff and non-tariff barriers that need to be removed for smooth business.

India Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Abdul Matlub Ahmad also spoke.

Meanwhile, BIMSTEC Energy Conference was held at the hotel.

Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma said energy connectivity needs to be strengthened in the region, apart from transport connectivity as the future of the region depends on these two sectors.