Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen on Wednesday said great opportunities have been created in Bangladesh for the foreign investors for the rapid development at every sector here. The Foreign Affairs Minister came up with the remarks at a city hotel during the concluding session of ‘Dhaka Global Dialogue 2019’ titled “In Conversation: Convergence of Regional Initiatives for Optimising Common Benefits”.
“We are calling upon all of you (foreigners) to invest in Bangladesh to become a development partner and get benefit from here as well. Rapid development in Bangladesh has already created a win-win situation for both of us and foreign investors”, said the Foreign Affairs Minister Momen said peace and stability are very critical for sustainable growth and development. A simple thing in any part of the globalised word can create problems and obstructs the growth goals.
“Peace and stability are the spirit of the development. If there’s no peace, there is no development,” he said. “Our region is witnessing significant changes in all aspects of our societies and economies,” he said and added that, “Changes are also visible in the ways we cooperate with each other.” As the focus of growth is increasingly shifting to the Asia-Pacific region, the countries are being engaged in cooperative initiatives within a number of other regional economic groupings or processes, he mentioned.
“In South Asia, through the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), regional trade in goods and services is expected to rise robustly over the next few years,” he said adding that, “In South-East Asia, by next year, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would emerge as a seamless economic space up to Myanmar. Under the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Asia-Pacific regional economic integration is moving to a next level.”
He said the Bangladesh–China–India–Myanmar Forum for Regional Cooperation (BCIM) is shaping up with promise to unlock production–distribution-transportation opportunities. Momen mentioned that Chinese ambitious BRI is already in place to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through land and maritime networks. The Indo-Pacific strategy is also in progress.
“As I mentioned earlier regarding the popularity and requirement of having regional arrangements and initiatives, in today’s globalized world, no single country can prosper alone, he said. “What we need is to work closely - by drawing on each other’s strength, capabilities and endowments, he added.
“Many of the challenges that our region faces today, can best be addressed through collective efforts,” he said adding that, “Trade and trade facilitation are increasingly becoming the key to our mutual prosperity. There is enough evidence that increased intra-regional trade in our region can help sustain our individual country’s growth and support eradication of poverty.”
He said Bangladesh is open to any global and regional initiative which is economic in nature and helps economic development. Bangladesh approaches connectivity in a wider sense: to connect and create bridges for ideas, knowledge, innovation, culture, people, institutions, road-rail-air, technology, movement of goods–services–investment, energy and power, he mentioned.
Momen said people and their regular movement are at the centre of all our endeavors of any form of connectivity. Connectivity ensures minimum 2 percent additional growth by improving quality of life and ending isolation, he said adding that, connectivity is equally about securing well-being, dignity and realizing right to development for our people and communities, especially for the people at the grassroots.
“I will reiterate few things for the common peace and prosperity of our region. First is of course to create an environment of peace-harmony-stability of all countries and we have to focus on entire menu of sustainable development,” Momen said. He said, “We must guard against the tendency to look at this region in respect of trade or security issues only.”
“We often look just in terms of the capacity of a few large economies or their needs. But, we must get the narrative right: addressing the key concerns of smaller communities or relatively weaker economies is a must in our collective journey, for any sustainable world,” he said.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Md. Shahriar Alam, Observer Research Foundation Chairman Sunjoy Joshi and Parliamentary Standing Committee Member on Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nahim Razzaq, among others, were also present at the function.
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