Commerce secy urges dev partners to help boost Bangladesh's FDI inflow

Senior Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh on Monday urged development partners including the World Bank to support Bangladesh to attain the desired level of foreign direct investment (FDI).

Addressing the closing ceremony of the Export Readiness Fund at a city hotel, he emphasised the critical need for FDI to achieve export diversification. However, he expressed concern that the current pace of FDI inflow is not at the required level for the country.

He said that the Export Readiness Fund, a matching-grant programme of the Export Competitiveness for Jobs Project, has shown how Bangladesh can diversify its exports beyond readymade garment.

Diversification of exports beyond RMG is a big dilemma and the country will have to break this deadlock as Bangladesh has duty free market access in all the developed countries except the United States, he said.

The ERF, a $17.5 million-financial grant programme of the World Bank, was launched in January 2020 under the Export Competitiveness for Jobs (EC4J) project implemented by the commerce ministry with the aim of developing factory compliance and increasing competitiveness of four targeted export sectors of the country.

The sectors include leather and leather goods, footwear, plastics and light engineering products.

A total of 570 enterprises in the four sectors received financial and technical support under the programme.

"We are doing well domestically in many manufacturing sectors but still we are not being able to gain success in the global market. Many of the issues are blocking our entry in the world export market," the commerce secretary said.

Despite having duty free market access Bangladesh would have to comply with the standard of global environmental, social and governance goals to diversify the country's exports, he added.

At the event, Leather Goods and Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association of Bangladesh president Syed Nasim Manzur said that the recent global economic slowdown was more severe than the Covid-19 situation and support for the small and medium enterprises was really needed to rebound from the crisis.

Souleymane Coulibaly, lead country economist of the World Bank, said that the Export Readiness Fund under the commerce ministry programme with the support of the World Bank Group was helping Bangladesh to develop factory compliance and increasing competitiveness of four targeted export sectors.

He said that the World Bank was committed to enhance the competitiveness of Bangladesh SME sectors for the further economic growth of the country.

Project director of Export Competitiveness for Jobs (EC4J) Project Md Monsurul Alam, ERF management unit team leader Dave Runganaikaloo and World Bank Group private sector specialist Hosna Ferdous Sumi, CEO of Young Consultants Zakir Hossain, among others spoke at the event.