Md. Muzibur Rahman :
We know that the role of Bangladeshi expatriates is important and multidimensional both in their motherland and abroad. An expatriate leaves his native land leaving all loves one only for education or to secure a decent job for their future livelihood. But everyone loves his native land too much but his fate compels him to leave his own country finding no other means. This may be happened for many causes like for permanent settlement, business/profession, study/training etc. A sizeable portion of Bangladeshi labor force is employed in the Middle-East and many other countries of the world. The number of expatriates of Bangladesh is increasing day by day with the increasing trend of population and unemployment. By hard labor and endeavor, they earn money and get opportunities in foreign land. Their contribution in our national economy is also great. They earn money, send money in their native land for near and dear ones and spend money to repay debts, building houses, buying new agriculture land or to spend travels, tours and entertainments like marriages, parties and other causes.
Remittances sent by the Bangladeshi expatriates make significant contribution directly or indirectly towards accelerating economic development of the country, such as addressing unemployment problems, poverty reduction and increasing foreign exchange reserve. Our foreign exchange reserve was only 3.5 billion US dollars in FY 06 whereas it is now (FY18) about 33 billion US dollars. A big portion of our foreign exchange reserve is contributed by our Bangladeshi expatriates. We hope it will definitely increase in the coming years.
Present government has taken several steps to boost up foreign employment and remittance. Steps are: expansion of labor market, increasing sector-based skilled manpower, exporting manpower through proper channels, establishment of Probashi Kallyan Bank, welfare activities for the expatriate workers, modernization of Emigration process, acts and policies to combat migration costs. Now it is the best time to consider using their hard earned money in a rational and productive way so that they can be themselves benefitted from their investment and also can contribute to the national economy of our country. There are many fields in Bangladesh to invest their remittances and to get best return from them. Firstly, we can mention and recommend of our stock market. This is the best place to invest although the market is now bearish mood. Our stock market is now more stable and transparent than any other time before. Some reforms have taken by giving incentives with monetary and fiscal policies of the government.
Education, training and financial literacy is encouraged among the people. We hope that these will positively affect on the market and our stock market will positively become vibrant in near future. The prices of the products are very low and many of the real value of the products are under their Net Asset Value (NAV) which is lucrative to the potential investors. They can choice good companies with strong fundamentals and qualitative stocks existing in the market. When market will rise better, they will be winner ultimately. Secondly, they (our expatriates) can invest in the real estate sectors, big infrastructures running in the countries, SME (Small and Medium Enterprises), agro-based economy like, dairy farm, poultry and animal husbandry. Crop based mini agriculture farm, agriculture machinery, fishery and livestock. They can invest also in the Textile or Garments, Leather, Ceramic, Tourism and Jute sectors. They can invest in the Export Processing Zones (EPZ), Special Economic Zones, Hi-tech Parks for ICT development etc.
Now, it is the best time to motivate them to invest their hard earned money in Bangladesh, in their motherland. A few days ago, during the 74th UNGA (United Nation General Assembly) Session, a seminar had been held in the New York, USA, related to emphasizing Bangladeshi expatriates’ investment in Bangladesh. This seminar was organized on the sideline of the 74th UNGA Session which stressed the need for thinking about merit-based remittance apart from the existing remittance flow. The seminar on ‘US-Bangladesh Trade and Investment: Role of Bangladeshi Americans’ was jointly organized by the America-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) & the Centre for NRB (Non-Resident Bangladeshi) at a hotel in New York, USA on September 26, 2019.
The seminar called for more investment by the Bangladeshi expatriates in their motherland. Speakers outlined, described, prospects and potentials of investments in Bangladesh. This is a farsighted, wise and motivational work which will help and excite to Bangladeshi expatriates to invest in Bangladesh. This kind of seminar can be organized, arranged in other countries of the world which have potential investors of Bangladeshi expatriates and in the countries where Bangladeshi expatriates are working.
It is expected that Bangladesh will be the 24th largest economy by 2030 if we remain united. Government has also facilitating institutional support for the NRBs as three NRB commercial banks have already started their operations in Bangladesh. We hope that every hard earned money/penny of Bangladeshi expatriates will be used economically; productively and rationally in their native land. Their (Bangladeshi expatriates) investment will help Bangladesh to be a middle income country by 2021,to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030 and to be rich one by 2041.
(Md. MuziburRahman, writes on development and economics issues, e-mail: [email protected])
