Bangladesh received $28b in foreign investment in 5 years

Bangladesh received more than $28 billion in investment from 45 countries in the last five years with China investing the highest amount of $8,107 million.

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen revealed this in parliament in reply to a question from Awami League MP Md Israfil Alam (Naogaon-6).

In absence of Abdul Momen, state minister for foreign affairs M Shahriar Alam placed the statistics provided by Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA).

According to the BIDA's statistics, the top ten countries in terms of investment size are: China (US$ 8,107 million), the UAE (US$ 7,836 million), Saudi Arabia (US$ 2,461 million), Singapore (US$ 2,261 million), the UK (US$ 1,962 million), The Netherlands (US$ 1,744 million), the USA (US$ 1,219 million), India (US$ 976 million), Thailand (US$ 637 million) and Japan (US$ 384 million).

In a scripted answer, the state minister also said the country's diplomatic missions are maintaining good relations with different organisations, multi-national companies alongside different governments as part of their efforts to increase foreign investment in Bangladesh and expand trade further.

Besides, he said, efforts are on to sign various investment and trade related economic deals with new countries alongside taking steps for strengthening trade and investment ties with the neighbouring and regional countries.

As per the directives of the prime minister, Shahriar said, their ministry is working to bring dynamism into the economic diplomacy by increasing coordination and cooperation with the commerce ministry and different relevant government bodies in a bid to implement the Awami League's election manifesto and achieve the goal of 10 per cent GDP by 2023.

He said Bangladesh's diplomatic missions are also playing an effective role in increasing economic diplomacy at the international level.