Anisul Islam Noor :Local and foreign entrepreneurs have lost their interest in investing in the country due to the political turmoil and uncertainty, business insiders and experts said.Following unfavourable blockade and hartal, only one foreign direct investor got registered for investment last month comparing to 29 local joint venture firms, according to the Board of Investment (BoI) data.In the first 10 days of this month, no foreign investor registered to invest in the country. In normal situation, on an average about 70 entrepreneurs get registered for investment. It means that political crisis has affected business vastly, said director of BoI on condition of not to be named. “Local investors feared that political situation might deteriorate further. It had sent a bad signal to foreign investors who were interested in Bangladesh,” Professor Abu Ahmed said.Foreign investors have been getting bad signal from Bangladesh. Japan’s Prime Minister assured of huge investment during his tour in Bangladesh. But after that there was no progress, he said. Foreign investors choose Bangladesh for cheap labour cost. But quick utility connection, developed road transportation and business friendly political environment are their first priority, Professor Abu Ahmad said. According to the BoI, the real FDI was $1,640m (Tk13, 000 crore) in 2014. In the said year, the re-investment, however, was $700m (Tk5, 500 crore). BoI saw a moderate growth in FDI situation in 2014, as there prevailed better political environment in 2014 compared with previous year.In the month of December last year, a total of Tk3,000 crore investment was registered. In January this year, the figure came down to Tk1,000 crore. In 2013, total volume of registered investment was $2,621m, but the real investment was $1,599m.BoI executive member Nobhash Chandra Mandal said the country’s investment situation would “definitely improve if we can overcome political crisis.”He said the BoI would arrange road shows in France and Netherlands in March this year to attract foreign direct investment.AB Mirza Azizul Islam, ex-finance adviser to the caretaker government, said the investment situation might not improve unless the two major parties reached a political consensus on the present crisis.He said uncertainty had eroded investor’s confidence due to the prolonged blockade and hartal.Yet Bangladesh received a foreign direct investment worth $1.78b, registering 37.5 percent rise from the previous year.Bangladesh is attracting investment from both Western and Asian countries. The major countries from which investment is originating are United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Egypt, Canada, Netherlands and United Arab Emirates. There is potential for greater investment from India and China too.
