Investment Climate in Bangladesh : Performance and Possibilities

Bangladesh achieved lower-middle income country’s status from the World Bank in July 2015. It’s GNI per capita raised into USD 1314 in 2014-15 FY from USD 1184 and USD 1054 in 2012-13 and 2013-14 Fiscal Years respectively. The government of Bangladesh declared Vision 2021 to be a higher middle income country by the year 2021. Therefor it has only 6 years in hand to raise GNI per capita from existing USD 1314 into USD 4126 to become a higher middle income country. There are many other challenges in front of it like; about 31.5% population is living below poverty line, there are 56.7 million workable populations in Bangladesh with 2 million unemployed populations. About 1.8 million educated workforces are entering into the job market in each year. GDP Growth rate is rotating around 6% to 6.6% during last decades, but it has to be increased into 8% to 10% to facilitate employment generation and poverty alleviation in Bangladesh. A huge amount of new investment is required to increase GDP growth and employment rate up to the desired level. There are options to increase local investment as well as go for foreign direct investment but preparations shall be taken in time. Otherwise Vision 2021 may not be achieved even by the year 2031. This is the time to compare Bangladesh’s performance in local and foreign investment attraction with its competitor countries. Current investment attraction tools using by the government of Bangladesh could be rechecked and initiate effective corrective measures as, when and where required