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Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Saturday hoped that the Japanese investors including their large companies would come with investments in Bangladesh in a bigger way in the coming years.
“We’re looking forward to them (Japanese investors) for making future investments in Bangladesh as very big investment will come up from Japan,” he said.
The Finance Minister was briefing reporters after a big delegation of Japanese investors including representatives from Japanese large companies held a meeting with Kamal and concerned government secretaries at the NEC conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area yesterday. Japanese ambassador to Dhaka Naoki Ito led the Japanese delegation, reports BSS.
Mentioning that Japan is a time-tested friend of Bangladesh, Kamal said, “They (Japan) are with us since our inception (after the war of liberation) and now they will be with us eternally and this is our belief. They are committed to work jointly with Bangladesh and we’re also committed to move ahead taking them alongside.”
The minister said since a special economic zone has already been dedicated exclusively for the Japanese investors at Araihazar in Narayanganj, the government wants that the Japanese investors do not face any problem there.
He said the meeting discussed various issues as well as about the progress of the Japanese funded projects and how to move forward those in a speedy manner.
Replying to a question, the Finance Minister said Japanese side has raised some issues on royalties’ remittance and on VAT and the NBR chairman would sort out those sitting with them soon.
“There is no legal complexity between us and all issues are procedural. Since there is no legal complexity, we’ll be able to sort out those at our level,” Kamal said, adding that the meeting has decided that such issues do not arise in future.
He said that all the Japanese funded projects are going on smoothly in Bangladesh and they are also satisfied with the implementation pace of the metro rail and Matarbari power plant projects.
About outcome of the meeting, the Japanese Ambassador said this is a clear demonstration that the Japanese companies and the government of Bangladesh are really committed to further promote the level of cooperation and collaboration between the two sides to contribute to further economic growth of Bangladesh.
“We’re also hopeful of increasing trade and investment between the two countries ……..with this spirit of cooperation and collaboration between us, we can further promote our economic partnership and we’ll be able to find out solutions to those challenges and issues so that increasing number of Japanese companies can play even more important role for the economic growth of Bangladesh,” he added.
The Japanese Ambassador also hoped that the investment and business climate for Japanese and other foreign companies would improve further in Bangladesh.
“The Japanese companies will expand business operations here and increase its exports which will have a positive impact on the economy of Bangladesh as well as have a positive outcome on the revenue of the Bangladesh government.”
Ito said the aim of the Japanese investors here is on how to strengthen further the economy of Bangladesh.The National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan, Financial Institutions Division Senior Secretary Md Ashadul Islam, Finance Division Secretary Abdur Rouf Talukder and ERD Secretary Monowar Ahmed, among others, attended the meeting.
(AA)
