Most of the foreign investors are reluctant to invest in Bangladesh as they are still facing fund repatriation impediment. “Fund repatriation is a major hindrances to foreign investment in Bangladesh,’’ said Abrar A Anwar, chief executive officer (CEO) of Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh. He came up with the observation while announcing the upcoming 3rd Bangladesh Investment Summit, Asia, which will be held on 1 September this year in Singapore. Abrar A Anwar and Sohail RK Hussain, managing director and CEO of The City Bank, jointly made the announcement at a press conference held at a city hotel yesterday. The Standard Chartered Bank and The City Bank are platinum sponsors of the summit. The other partial sponsors of the daylong summit include BRAC EPL, BRAC Bank and DFDL. Addressing the press conference Anwar said, “Lack of good governance and inadequate foreign currency also refrain the potential foreign investors from investing in Bangladesh.” “From our previous experiences, we’ve found that foreign investors want to get assurance of their fund repatriation before their long-term investment plan.” He also urged Bangladesh Bank to be more flexible on allowing fund repatriation to encourage the foreign investors. “We’ve noticed that foreign investors are more interested to invest in energy and power sector only if we could comply with their basic demands,” he said. Anwar also said, “We’re going to convey the message to the foreign investors that it is the high time for investment in Bangladesh as the country is now on the track to reach 7% GDP growth with adequate reserve, stable currency, steady growing of remittance and exports.” The summit, which is planed to be a regular annual event, will be a good platform for understanding the investment opportunities in Bangladesh, Sohel Hossain told the press conference. Around 300 investors from different sector are going to attend the summit to discuss the investment opportunities in various areas, he said
