Bangladesh’s popularity as a ‘foreign investment destination’ was evidenced once again when the recently released World Investment Report 2016 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) underlined that the country has received the highest amount of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in a year in 2015. The investment report also states that FDI in Bangladesh’s textiles and readymade garments (RMG) industry also remained strong.
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“Bangladesh has witnessed the highest growth among the South Asian countries due to stable and favourable investment atmosphere that prevailed in the country last year,” stated SA Samad, Executive Chairman of Board of Investment (BoI),” adding, “That’s why those who are investing here did not want to leave.”
As per the UNCTAD report, Bangladesh attracted US $ 2.235 billion, registering a 44 per cent growth – US $ 684 million in value – in FDI inflow over the previous year’s FDI. In contrast to Bangladesh, FDI inflows to Pakistan and Sri Lanka declined to US $ 865 million and US $ 681 million, respectively, as per the report.
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Furthermore, the report states that in this region, Bangladesh is ahead of all countries except India which received US $ 44 billion FDI in the year making it the 10th largest FDI recipient country in the world in 2015. It also underlined that Bangladesh’s energy sector received the highest FDI of US $ 574 million followed by textiles and wearing with US $ 443 million, followed by telecommunications with US $ 255 million and banking with US $ 310 million FDI.
