First fall in FDI in four years

The government disputed a report brought out by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) which stated that foreign direct investment (FDI) had slipped by 4.5 percent in 2014. The World Investment Report 2015 said that Bangladesh had received FDI worth US$1.526 billion in 2014 compared to US$1.599 billion the preceding year. The claim that the report did not reflect a lot of investments coming into Bangladesh and yet not being represented in UCTAD's report, needs to be substantiated. 

Whatever may be the bone of contention between government estimates and those presented by UNCTAD, we have to face the fact that Bangladesh is losing out on FDI, particularly at a time when it is seeing a major surge in South and East Asia. As pointed out by some economists, although Bangladesh has several sectors including readymade garments, telecommunications, banking and energy that hold a lot of potential for foreign investments, negative image portrayal has not helped bring in the desired FDI.

One cannot discount the fact that the recent decision to retake land allotted to KEPZ, on whatever grounds, has sent a wrong signal to the foreign investors. That issues over land availability and ownership take decades to decide on, is becoming a major hindrance to FDI flows. We need to sort out these issues expeditiously; cutting through red-tape, should we want to turn Bangladesh into a favourite FDI destination in South Asia.