21 July 2022, Dhaka:

On 21st July 2022, Director General (International Trade, Investment and ICT), Dr. Syed Muntasir Mamun, and officers from the International Trade, Investment & Technology Wing and ICT wing of the Foreign Office had a meeting with the representatives of the T. Rowe Price Group, Inc., an American publicly owned global investment management firm.  Founded in 1937, The firm manages a portfolio of nearly 1.5 trillion US$ funds. Mr. Johannes Loefstrand, portfolio manager of the Frontier Markets Equity Fund; Mr. Sebastian Murphy, investment analyst; and Ms. Rainbow Moore, investment analyst from T.Rowe Price Group, Inc participated in the meeting.

Representatives of T.Rowe Price Group, Inc enquired about the actions taken for attracting more Foreign Direct Investment, changes that are taking place in Bangladesh, initiatives for increasing export volume to strengthen the export-led economy of Bangladesh, activities and success of Special Economic Zones of Bangladesh and digitalization process. In the meeting, Director General mentioned about the strength and technical excellence of human resources in Bangladesh, the size and texture of the domestic market, strong connectivity to North-Eastern India and south and East Asia in general, increasing participation of women in the workforce and also in the leadership, booming local businesses, rapid digitalization, strong infrastructure in terms of connectivity in the country and different types of investment options available in the country. The concerned agencies like BEZA, BEPZA, PPP, BIDA, BSEC, Ministry of Commerce etc. are working very hard to improve the ease of doing business and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would render all support to work as a bridge to give the foreign investors full support 24x7.

The DG stated that under the leadership of the Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the institutional capacity of Bangladesh and the rule of law is strengthening. Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also established the “International Trade, Investment & Technology Wing” to facilitate and support foreign investors in every step of the process. While discussing the digitalization scenario, Dr. Mamun mentioned that the Foreign Ministry had already digitalized 34 consular services and 28 internal services. Dr. Muntasir also shared the Ministry’s plan to build a neural network for facilitating connection amongst markets and facilitating flow of funds and technology.  The Foreign Office is also working for deploying a blockchain solution to entrench a data authentication protocol into the existing paper-based system.

The DG also said that Bangladesh doesn’t want FDI only in the form of funds, but also in the form of the mind, the thoughts, intelligence and the individual persons. He said that Bangladesh needs visionary corporate engagement for its own corporate sector to grow beyond the borders. The delegates suggested that, for successful utilization of the Special Economic Zones and attracting foreign companies there, Bangladesh would need to highlight shining examples of companies that achieved great success after setting up business in Bangladesh.

At the end of the meeting, representatives of the T. Rowe Price Group mentioned that during their visit to Bangladesh, they have met people with the right intentions that made them optimistic, and they would like to visit Bangladesh again.