THE just concluded 21-hour visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Dhaka ushers a new hope to cementing the traditionally deep rooted bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Japan. The visit offered a big opportunity to reach a higher economic development trajectory for Bangladesh as Japan is looking at South Asia for investment. The existing congenial atmosphere between the nations can grab more investment in our thrust sectors.
The visit is taking place when Japanese investment in China dropped by 45 percent over the last 11 months. It seems Bangladesh does not want to miss this opportunity this time as there is a possibility that Vietnam, Myanmar, India and other destinations might seize the chance if Bangladesh fails to fulfil Japanese investors’ expectations in terms of investment facilities. While addressing business leaders in Dhaka, Shinzo Abe expressed his plans to promote investment in transport, infrastructure, power and energy, and garment sectors. As many as 50 executives’ from top companies of Japan likeliness to invest here will help advance the Japan-Bangladesh Comprehensive Partnership. In reciprocating, the government’s decision to sacrifice Dhaka’s candidature for a non-permanent seat in UN Security Council for the term of 2016-17 in favour of Tokyo seems to be a good move.
Marking Bangladesh economy as ‘an emerging’ one, PM Abe said, the Bay of Bengal Industrial Growth Belt (BIG-B) initiative is the “centre-piece” of Japanese cooperation with Bangladesh. He mentioned the $6 billion loan promises he made for the next four to five years were all under Japan’s BIG-B concept. The improvement of transportation and infrastructure, stable supply of power and energy, urban development including a special economic zone improvement, and also public sector development including improved market access to the financial market were the key to the BIG-B concept. Underscoring Bangladesh’s geo-political importance, Abe said the country is also important for implementing his “Abenomics”, a much-talked-about economic policy he has adopted to inflate the decade long deflated Japanese economy. He has also emphasized the importance of creating proper investment climate to attract investment from Japan.
Bangladesh enjoys duty-free benefit to Japanese market for 8,884 products, resulting rise on RMG exports and in 2011-12 the garment export to Japan increased by 38.8 percent from the previous year. When Japan is suffering due to an aging population Bangladesh could be an attractive potential market or sources of cheap labour-power for Japanese companies. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also pointing out the investment potentials in textiles, leather, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding, agro-based industries, light engineering and electronics, telecommunications and IT.
In last year, Japan provided a total of $11 billion grants and aid in forms of technical assistance and soft loans to Bangladesh. But the country is able to become self-dependent, not merely aid-dependent, if Japan invests in high-tech manufacturing like automobiles and microprocessors.
For the use of foreign aid and cooperation, we in Bangladesh must have capability and competence. This is a clear indication from Prime Minister of Japan when he asserted the importance of investment in infrastructures.
