DHAKA, March 4, 2019 (BSS) – Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal today
sought more Saudi investment in Bangladesh as an investment-friendly
environment is prevailing in the country with attractive stimulus.
The Finance Minister made the call when the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to
Bangladesh Abdullah HM Al Mutairi met him at his ERD office, said a press
release.
During the meeting, Kamal told the Saudi Ambassador that Bangladesh has the
best investment-friendly environment in South Asia as attractive stimulus
package are available in the country which is helpful to make a huge profit.
“There is enough scope for making investment in the country’s promising
sectors like power, solar energy, energy, telecommunications and ICT,
petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, ship-building and agro-processing sectors,”
he said.
Mentioning that the country has attained over 7 percent growth on average
in the last 10 years with the latest 7.86 percent in the last fiscal year,
the Finance Minister expressed his optimism that Bangladesh would be able to
attain 8.25 percent GDP growth at the end of the current fiscal.
He also cited that Bangladesh has dedicated human resources and need
limited funds to start up businesses and has access to the large duty-free
and quota-free markets.
Mentioning that the government is setting up 100 special economic zones
across the country to spur economic growth, Kamal said that the government
has allocated some 2,000 acres of land against a special economic zone
dedicated for the Saudi investors, which they would be able to utilize as per
their own demand.
He also noted that the bilateral trade between the two countries rose to $
one billion in the last fiscal year while scope is also there to boost this
trade volume through maximizing the existing trade facilities of the two
countries.
Praising highly the socio-economic development of Bangladesh over the last
few years, the Saudi Ambassador expressed satisfaction over the existing
bilateral relations between the two countries as dynamism has been infused in
this relation in recent years.
He informed the Minister that his country has issued 8,300 work visas,
80,000 umrah visas and 1,28,000 hajj visas for Bangladeshis this year.
The Saudi Ambassador also informed that a high-powered Saudi delegation
comprising Saudi Planning Minister and Trade and Investment Affairs Minister
will arrive here on March 7 to further boost these two brotherly countries
relations.