Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen recently urged foreign entrepreneurs to invest more in his country, considering the rising competition amid the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Promising to continue buying US cotton, he also requested the United States to reduce the 15.2 percent tariff on exported Bangladeshi garments made from US cotton.
He was speaking at an event organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Dhaka.
“Many foreign investors are moving their industries out of China to survive the high competition there and so, they could consider Bangladesh as an alternative,” he said.
Besides, Bangladesh has low energy prices and huge manpower while its government is investment-centric, he was quoted as saying by Bangladeshi media reports.
The US is a major source of foreign investment for Bangladesh, accounting for about 20 percent of the country’s total foreign direct investment. “However, most of these investments are concentrated on a few sectors so it is time to diversify,” he added.
Bangladesh’s exports to the US amounted to $6.7 billion in 2019 while the country’s imports from the latter stood at $2.3 billion.
