Planning Minister M A Mannan said the private sector needs to be aggressive to invest both at home and aborad.
He said Bangladeshi entrepreneurs are now entering into the African market and we have to grab the market through investing more in that region.
The Minister was addressing a webinar as chief guest on “Trade & Investment Cooperation of Africa and Bangladesh: Towards a new Trajectory” held on the 5th day of Bangladesh Trade & Investment Summit 2021 on Saturday.
Special Guest of the webinar AHM Ahsan, Vice Chairman & CEO, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), while Md. Tarikul Islam, DG Africa Wing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abdus Samad Al Azad, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce also spoke among others as panel discussants.
Speakers observed that African region is a large continent with an huge investment opportunities despite the trade share of Bangladesh is remarkably very low due to lack of PTA/FTA, tariff and non-tariff barriers and infrastructure speakers told in the
DCCI President Rizwan Rahman made keynote presentation in the webinar.
In his presentation, Rizwan Rahman said that the bilateral trade is about USD1.5bn between Bangladesh and Africa having positive trade balance for Bangladesh. Export trade of Bangladesh to Africa accounts for 1.02% of our total export.
Though the African investment is declining in Bangladesh, Bangladeshi investment in Africa is on the gradual rise, he added. The African investment in Bangladesh was recorded only USD306 Million.Bangladesh may invest in manufacturing and Agricultural sector of some African countries.
Bangladeshi investors can invest in African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and can expand export to the US market for strategic market sustenance.
Special Guest of the webinar AHM Ahsan said African trade with the rest of the world in 2020 was USD888 billion accounting only 3% of total global trade. And in the last year the intra-African trade volume was 133 billion is heavily influenced by African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
Md. Tarikul Islam, DG Africa Wing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Africa is resourceful country having enormous potentials. African investment to Bangladesh is not remarkable due to their restrictions over foreign investment.
But textiles, pharmaceuticals, footwear, RMG, leather, paper and pulp, ship breaking and agriculture are some of the sectors they can invest. Visa process for African investors will be eased, he informed.
Abdus Samad Al Azad, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce said that there is a huge opportunity of outward investment from Africa. We need to work more to sign FTA or PTA with the African countries, he added.