Bangladesh Embassy in France, in collaboration with MEDEF International, the leading network of French business enterprises organized a seminar titled “Bangladesh-France Trade and Investment Relations: Prospects and Potentials”, said a press release from the Embassy of Bangladesh, Paris.
The event was held at MEDEF International’s Headquarters in Paris on 10 July 2018. It was attended by the chief executives and representatives from 14 large and medium size French companies and representatives from French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, French Development Agency (AFD), French Foreign Trade Advisors Business.
The business sectors represented at the event were environment, aerospace and defense, physical infrastructure and transport sector, energy and renewable energy, health and nutrition, digital security, and banking and finance. Ms. Geraldine Lemble, Director, MEDEF International presided over the session. Bangladesh Ambassador to France Mr. Kazi Imtiaz Hossain presented the keynote paper in the session. Commercial Counsellor Ms. Dilara Begum and other officials of the Embassy were also present at the event.
In her opening remark, Ms. Geraldine Lemble recalled the invitation of the Hon’ble Prime Minister to French business entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh. It may be mentioned that Hon’ble Minister Sheikh Hasina had attended a business meeting with members of MEDEF International during her visit to France in December 2017.
“France needs to invest to sustain its growth while Bangladesh needs investment to expedite its growth” she quoted the Bangladesh Prime Minister and noted that French business enterprises are closely following the impressive growth and social progress of Bangladesh with great interest and would like to engage more deeply in the economic development of Bangladesh.
In his keynote address, Ambassador Hossain narrated on the steady socio-economic progress of Bangladesh particularly in the areas of electricity and power generation, physical infrastructure development, information technology and communication, health, education and women empowerment.
Noting that the country has recorded a steady GDP growth of over 6.6 per cent for over the past decade, this growth has been even more impressive in the last three fiscal years exceeding 7.5 per cent, he added.
Referring to the Vision 2021 and Vision 2041 of the Hon’ble Prime Minister, the ambassador underlined that the Bangladesh was well on track to achieving these visions having already attained the status of a low middle-income country and crossed the thresholds for graduating out of LDC category.
Terming the bilateral political and economic relationship between France and Bangladesh time-tested and ever expanding, the ambassador invited French companies to explore business and investment potentials in Bangladesh, take the advantage of our strategic location and many special investment incentives that the country offers.
He highlighted that public investment in Bangladesh is steadily increasing for creating necessary infrastructure and environment conducive for private sector investment, both domestic and foreign. In this context, he referred to the recent launching of French-built Bangladesh’s first communication satellite Bangabandhu-I into the orbit and noted that partnership between the two countries is expanding in newer areas collaboration.
Following the key-note presentation, a documentary on Bangladesh economic development and investment potentials was shown.
Taking part in the discussion, participants applauded the impressive growth of Bangladesh and expressed their eagerness to be a part of country’s development journey.
The representative of French Development Agency (AFD) talked about their engagement in Bangladesh especially in the supply of pure drinking water in Dhaka. Other French companies already investing Bangladesh shared their experiences about the opportunity and challenges of investing in Bangladesh.
The ambassador gave his full assurances to extend full support to facilitate their investments in Bangladesh.
The event ended with the ambassador holding one-to-one meeting with 6 French companies, namely, AEMC France, BOLLORE Ports, IDEMIA, THALES Alenia Space, PARLYM International and TERRAWATT Initiatives, and exchanged views on issues of their specific interests.
