World’s eyes are now on Bangladesh, says BSEC chief

Bangladesh is now recognised as an attractive destination for investment in the world, says Shibli Rubayat-Ul-Islam, chairman of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC).

He said this before joining four investment conferences to be organised by the BSEC in the US from July 26 to Aug 2, and designed to woo investors to the possibilities that the Bangladesh market offers.

Prof Shibli Rubayat, a former Dhaka University teacher and researcher, said many research organisations have published positive reports on the economic development of Bangladesh and many investors from different corners of the world now want to invest in Bangladesh, reports bdnews24.com.

“The entire world’s eyes are on Bangladesh now. What we need to do is to present the ways of investment in Bangladesh to them.”

The BSEC chairman said they have two target groups in the US – non-resident Bangladeshis, and American businesses.

The expatriate Bangladeshis cannot make a good profit by investing in the US, but they have the option to take back profits and investments from Bangladesh through non-resident investors taka account, he said.

And a US business association has targeted five countries for investment, with Bangladesh on the top of the list.

They want to make 17 per cent of the total investment in Bangladesh, according to Prof Shibli Rubayat. “We want to bring investment from such foreigners.”

The foreigners are eyeing bond, mutual fund, and commodity market, besides the share market, according to him.

“We will present mutual funds, bonds and other products to them so that they do not keep their eye only on the secondary market.”

“The Bangladesh bond market will be very strong in future. Bonds will take our capital market forward. The foreign investment in bonds will take our economy further ahead,” the BSEC chief remarked.

Bangladesh is also working on derivatives and commodity market, he added.

“Gold can be brought to Bangladesh as a commodity now. The Chattogram Stock Exchange is working on gold now. We’ll also dive into this. For this, we will need big investors in future.”

“We don’t think that the secondary market is the market. Our country has different big fields for investment now,” Prof Shibli Rubayat added.

The BSEC will organise the first conference in New York. It will meet the foreign investors at InterContinental New York Barclay hotel in the morning on that day, and the Bangladeshi expatriates in the afternoon.

The next conferences will be held in Washington, DC on Jul 28, Los Angeles on Jul 30 before the final one takes place at the Silicon Valley of Santa Clara on Aug 2.

The commission is organising a series of roadshow on Bangladesh’s economy and capital markets in different parts of the world as part of a wide and elaborate plan to showcase Bangladesh’s capital market and trade and investment opportunities globally, the BSEC said in a statement.

The first of the series, ‘The Rise of Bengal Tiger: Potentials of Trade and Investment in Bangladesh’, was held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates from Feb 9 to 12.

“We got overwhelming responses from both the NRB and foreign institutional and individual investors in the Dubai Road Show,” the BSEC said.