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Rahul Preeth
Doha
Bangladesh, a small country wedged in by the Bay of Bengal between India and Myanmar in South East Asia, has a big dream. It wants to be a developed nation by 2041.
The rather audacious target is poised to spring a lot of frowns, because what people know of the country generally comes from new reports — of floods, cyclones and political crises. Its achievements are often buried among a bevy of more attention-grabbing stories of strife and squalor.
However, if you look at Bangladesh through numbers, you can see a very fertile economy that is full of possibilities for a country like Qatar.
The Bangladesh Forum Qatar (BFQ), a Doha-based thinktank comprising Bangladeshi expatriate professionals, attempted to do just that — to paint a more realistic picture of the country to the who’s who of the Qatari business community.
The forum on Saturday organised a seminar in collaboration with the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC) and highlighted the investment opportunities in Bangladesh. The high-profile event drew participation from Bangladesh's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mohammed Shariar Alam, Bangladesh's Ambassador to Qatar HE Ashud Ahmed, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) Executive Chairman Kazi M Aminul Islam, QFC Authority CEO Yousuf Mohamed al Jaida and BFQ President Iftekhar Ahmad among others.
Head of Business of Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) Sheikh Abdul Aziz al Thani, Qatar Stock Exchange CEO Rashid Ali al Mansoori, a large number of Qatari investors, heads of diplomatic missions in Doha and business leaders such as the Qatar Information and Marketing CEO Abdulrahman al Qahtani attended the seminar.
Why Bangladesh?
The forum essentially aimed to address the question: Why Bangladesh?
According to BIDA's Kazi Aminul Islam, the country is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at 7.3 percent in 2017 and is expected to grow by more than 8 percent this year, he said.
The country has fared well in socio-economic indicators such as women empowerment, adult education, life expectancy and infant mortality. With a population of 165 million, Bangladesh offers a huge domestic market. More than half of its population are below the age of 30 and has a total working population of 67 million.
Bangladesh's annual GDP (nominal) amounts for $250 bn and has a GDP per capita of $1,516 as of October 2017. For reference, Qatar's nominal GDP per capita in the same period was around $65,696.
Islam said Bangladesh has a young, educated and hard-working population and an affordable labour pool, making it ideal for any labour-intensive investments like textiles.
In terms of government support for foreign investments, he said, Bangladesh has a liberal FDI regime, offering tax holidays for investments up to 10 years and provisions for 100 percent foreign ownership and full repatriation of capital and dividend.
Benefits for Qatari investors
Being a booming economy, Bangladesh offers foreign investors several advantages. It has a thriving garment industry. It is second only to China in terms of ready-made garments export and leads when it comes to deriving profit from it.
"Bangladesh is a country of huge potential. With a population of 165 million and a mobile penetration of 85 percent, Bangladesh has many things to offer to a country such as Qatar, which has one of largest sovereign funds in the world, as well as many other private funds," Minister Mohammed Shariar Alam said.
Bangladesh is no longer a"basket case", the minister said, referring to former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger's characterisation of the country.
"It is on the way to become poverty- and hunger-free middle-income country by 2021 and a developed economy by 2041."
Qatar, he said, can be a part of the Bangladesh success story. The country is the third largest producer of vegetables, fourth in rice and fifth in fresh water fish despite being one of the most densely populated countries in the world.
Bangladesh is also an emerging blue economy, which throws a lot of opportunities for Qatar in the offshore oil and gas exploration.
Power generation is another potential investment area. Alam said the country will need $9 billion of in the near future and $60 billion by 2040. In 2017, Qatargas (then RasGas) signed a 15-year deal with Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation (Petrobangla) to supply 2.5 million tonnes of LNG per annum.
QFC's Yousuf Mohamed al Jaida said the exhaustive seminar would help the continued development of long and fruitful relations between Bangladesh and Qatar.
"The QFC is looking forward to developing existing partnerships in important markets such as Bangladesh and today marks a significant stride taken towards the growth of this partnership. As a business council, the Bangladesh Forum Qatar will surely play a key role in facilitating bilateral investment between Qatar and Bangladesh," he said. BFQ President Iftekhar Ahmad said:"The seminar is an initiative of Bangladesh Forum Qatar, a professional thinktank consisting of Bangladeshi expats working and doing business in Qatar with a view to promote trade and investment between both the countries."
