Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, now in Istanbul, has urged the Turkish businesspersons and industrialists to invest more in Bangladesh, a gateway to the South Asia, South-East Asia and Far East, including India and China.
Speaking at Bangladesh Business and Investment Forum in Istanbul on Tuesday, she said investment in Bangladesh offers a market of over two billion people in a region experiencing robust growth.
The foreign minister also referred to the duty-free and quota-free access of Bangladesh products to the European Union market and preferential access to the developed markets, and invited the Turkish investors to take advantage of these facilities by investing in Bangladesh.
Claiming Bangladesh’s investment regime as the most investment-friendly in the region and beyond, she also urged the Turkish industrialists to relocate their less-competitive labour-intensive industrial units to Bangladesh to take advantage of the country’s huge pool of trained and competitive labour force.
The minister also called upon the Turkish traders to import more from Bangladesh to help achieve the set target of US$ 3 billion bilateral trade volume between Bangladesh and Turkey by 2015.
A delegation from the Bangladesh Board of Investment (BOI) and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) made presentations on several sectors of trade and investment in the Forum.
The presentations included Digital Bangladesh: Vision 2021; Investment Climate of Bangladesh; Bangladesh Economic Zones: Investment Opportunities; Investment Opportunities in Energy Sector of Bangladesh; Ship-Building: An Emerging Sector of Bangladesh; Investment in Agro-based Sectors of Bangladesh; Pharmaceutical Industry of Bangladesh; Exploring Export Markets and Investment Frontiers for Leather Goods & Footwear Manufacturers; and Investment Opportunities in Bangladesh: The PPP (Public-Private Partnership) Program.
Earlier, on her arrival in Istanbul on Monday, Dipu Moni attended a working dinner hosted by TUSKON -- one of the largest business and industrial organisations of Turkey, a foreign ministry press statement said.
The members of TUSKON, some of which are already involved in Bangladesh in trade and investment, showed their keen interest to establish and further intensify their trade and investment relations with Bangladesh.
BBN/SSR/AD-10Apr12-3:50 pm (BST)
