A visiting delegation of the Confederation of Indian Industry expressed their interest to invest in setting up spinning mills and readymade garment factories in Bangladesh but the sector leaders suggested them to invest in primary textiles and forward and backward linkage industries. In separate meetings with the CII delegation, the leaders of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) discouraged the Indian businessmen to invest in the sectors where the local entrepreneurs are strong enough. A 12-member high-powered delegation of the CII arrived in Dhaka on October 24 and had meetings with the leaders of BTMA and the BGMEA on Sunday. ‘The visiting Indian business delegation expressed their interest to invest in spinning sector in Bangladesh. We told them that the local spinning mills meet 90 per cent of total demand of knitwear and foreign direct invest is not needed for the sector,’ Md Fazlul Hoque, vice president of the BTMA, told New Age on Monday. He said that the BTMA suggested CII delegation to invest in primary textiles and readymade garments as the spinning sector gained enough capacity to meet the local demands. Fazlul said that the delegation invited Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to invest in India in setting up spinning mills. ‘We informed them that the BTMA has no plan to set up spinning mills in India,’ he said. Mohammed Nasir, vice president (finance) of the BGMEA told New Age that the Indian delegation proposed for joint-venture in the RMG and the BGMEA suggested them to invest in setting up backward linkage and high value added industry. ‘We would not allow foreign investment in the RMG sector for stitching garments as the local players have enough capacity in the field,’ he said. The BGMEA vice president Mahmud Hasan Babu said that the Indian businesses want to invest in the RMG sector in Bangladesh, ‘but we suggested them to invest in backward linkage and forward linkage industries.’ ‘They also invited us to invest in India and we told them about the limitation as Bangladeshi entrepreneurs are usually not allowed to invest abroad,’ he said.
