Dhaka, Nov 29 (IANS): A two-day international investment summit has started in the Bangladesh capital to help the country woo more foreign investors.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the summit at a city hotel in Dhaka on Sunday joining virtually from her official residence Ganabhaban.
Speaking as the chief guest, she invited investors of the world to come up with investment in Bangladesh, saying Dhaka is set to provide all policy support for creating investment-friendly environment, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) organised the summit in which video messages of Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce, Ren Hongbin and World Economic Forum Managing Director, Jeremy Jurgens, among other world dignitaries, were broadcast.
An audio-visual documentary titled "Discover Limitless Opportunities" in Bangladesh was screened at the function. The summit is aimed at showcasing the potential of Bangladesh to foreign investors.
Hasina said 11 potential investment sectors have been identified, including infrastructure, capital markets, financial services, information technology, electronics manufacturing, leather, automotive and light engineering, agro-products and food processing, healthcare and medicine, jute-textiles and blue economy.
The government has formulated sector-wise industrial development policies, the Prime Minister added, along with the National Industrial Policy, and passed the Labor (Amendment) Act-2018, taking environmental protection projects and automating bond management for growth of the export-oriented industry.
She said the government has built 39 high-tech parks and are building 100 economic zones in phases.
"We've received investment proposals of $27.07 billion in the economic zones," she added.
Meanwhile, Hasina said about $30 billion of investment proposal is awaiting implementation in 79 public-private partnership (PPP) projects.
Speaking of Bangladesh's graduation from one of the least developed countries to a developing country, she added that the size of Bangladesh economy is now $411 billion, foreign exchange reserves stand at $48 billion and per capita income is $2,554.