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A report prepared by the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has depicted a gloomy investment scenario, when the commerce minister and executive chairman of Board of Investment (BOI) have ruled out the CPD contention instantly.

Rejecting the CPD report presented at a dialogue at a city hotel on Sunday, both commerce minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and executive chairman of BoI Mahmudur Rahman expressed their satisfaction over the current inflow of foreign direct investment in the country.

Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry and CPD jointly organised the dialogue on 'investing in Bangladesh: How Enabling is the Business Environment?"

The Keynote paper was presented by Executive Director of CPD Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, while Chairman of CPD Professor Rehman Sobhan moderated the dialogue.

Meanwhile, CPD has conducted a survey to assess the state of competitiveness environment in Bangladesh. The survey was executed as a part of CPUs contribution to the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) 2003-2004 prepared for the World Economic Forum. 

Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said, “We are doing well in some economic areas, and maybe we are not doing good in all the areas. But the fact is that the country never experienced such inflow of local and foreign direct investment".

UNB adds: Chowdhury said confrontational politics is affecting the way of life of everyone, be it of a business-man, politician or a civil servant.

He recognised that the country has not got investment up to expected level and said problems relating to infrastructures, business environment and policy implementation should be taken care of to have more investment.

Yet, he said, big investment is coming from both home and abroad, the Commerce Minister said, referring to some big projects ventured in recent months in many areas, including construction, textile, food products, pharmaceuticals and light engineering.

"I see investment is coming up in many areas," Khosru said, informing that a group of investors is now looking for a site here with a proposed in-vestment of US$ 500 millions in CR coil industry, while 22 companies are in the queue for investing here.

He also referred to the success in export-oriented bicycle industry, which expanded its export as well as went for backward linkages.

The survey portrayed a grim picture of business environment in Bangladesh and identified corruption, bureaucratic inefficiencies, inadequate infrastructures, crimes, policy instability and access to financing as major obstacles to doing business here.

The CPD survey also quoted 67 per cent of the respondents as saying Bangladesh economy may experience recessionary trends in 2004.

The executive chairman of Board of Investment (BOI) encountered the findings of the study and said investment are on the rise and indications are there for further growth next year.

He referred to the central bank statistics that reported 106 per cent rise in industrial credit disbursement. 49 per cent increase in capital ma­chinery import and 27 per cent increase in industrial raw material import during July-October period of the current fiscal year.

The BOI recorded FDI in-flow of US$ 288 millions dur­ing January-June this year while Bangladesh Bank put the figure at US$ 204 million. Although there is a gall between the figures of two gov­ernment agencies, the bot­tom-line is that investment has gone up, he said.

"I'm confused. Is the study adding any value to national interest, or is a wastage of both money and time?" the BOI chief said, questioning the relevance of the CPD study.

He also cited how organisations giving world rankings widely vary in their conclusions.

FBCCI president Abdul Awal Mintoo said WEF put Bangladesh at the bottom of its competitiveness indexes, and "foreign investors will look at it, no matter whether we like it or not. We've to improve our ranking."

Hinting at the BOI chief’s presentation, Mintoo said investment growth is encourag­ing, but the investment needs to grow thousand times to absorb 20 millions of working people who are left without job. The government must look at the factors which busi­nesspeople find affecting the investment environment, he said.

Workers' Party leader Rashed Khan Menon said external pressures are there to portray Bangladesh as a `failed state' in all fronts. He regretted that there has been no survey so far to detect how many donors' recipes later proved hazardous to the country's economy and to what extent. He also criticised the government's decision to hire external firm to run the management of a state bank.