Brimming with vigour

The Indo-Bangladesh cooperation began during the War of Liberation in 1971. The spirit of 1971 has always guided our relations. We recall with deep appreciation and gratitude, the support and cooperation that we had received from the government and people of India during our Liberation War.

Despite profound geopolitical changes and challenges, we have been able to strengthen and consolidate our relations, based on the principles of "mutual benefit" and "a shared future". Our cooperation has expanded in all areas, including security, energy, connectivity, trade and investment, defence, culture and people to people contact.

Bangladesh has achieved remarkable economic progress in the last decade – often recognised as a "development model". Bangladesh is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. It is the second-largest garment exporter, third-largest inland fish producer, fourth-largest freshwater fish and rice producer and eighth-largest remittance earning country.

All these achievements partly fulfil the dream of our Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to transform Bangladesh into "Sonar Bangla". If all these positive trends continue, we eventually expect to implement our vision to make Bangladesh a developed country by 2041.

During the last 10 years, our GDP growth averaged 7 per cent, reaching 8.1 per cent last year and expecting to be 8.3 per cent in the current fiscal. A few statistics would further highlight the strength of our economy:

Inflation has been reduced to 5.4 per cent;

Per capita income grew 3.5 times to around US$ 2000 in 2019 from US$ 543 in 2006;

Foreign currency reserve raised to US$ 33 billion;

Our exports grew 3 times from 2005-06 to reach US$ 40.53 billion in 2018-2019.

A projection by Price Waterhouse Coopers tells us that Bangladesh will be the 29th largest economy in the world by 2030. A recent World Bank publication has included Bangladesh in the five fastest-growing economies in the world. HSBC, in its report of 2018, predicts that Bangladesh will be the 26th largest economy becoming one of the three fastest economies of the World by 2030. Asian Development Bank Outlook 2019 mentioned that Bangladesh is the fastest growing economy in the Asia Pacific region. It attributes this achievement to strong leadership, good governance, continued political stability and sound macroeconomic policy.

Our government follows a "zero tolerance" policy to corruption and terrorism. Bangladesh is a progressive, secular democracy with a homogenous population of 162 million. With a large population, young people mostly under the age of 25 are ready to be engaged at very competitive wages. Rapid urbanisation fed by increasing consumption of electricity and burgeoning growth of middle class indicates the market potential in Bangladesh for investors.

Bangladesh has the most liberal investment policy in South Asia. It includes protection of foreign investment by law; generous tax holiday; concessionary duty on import of machinery; unrestricted exit policy; full repatriation of dividend and capital on exit, to name a few.

Foreign investment is protected by relevant acts of Parliament and bilateral investment treaties. We are in the process of establishing 100 Special Economic Zones. About a dozen of them are ready with four allotments to three countries. A number of high-tech parks are also ready for technology and innovative enterprises. Bangladesh has offered three Special Economic Zones for Indian investors at Mongla, Bheramara and Mirsarai. Substantial investment from Indian investors in these three Indian Economic Zones in Bangladesh would help broaden our exportable base.

We also want to see trade and investment together where big Indian investors can set up industries in Bangladesh and export products to the north-eastern states of India and to the South-East Asian countries, taking advantage of the improved connectivity between us.

Persistent growth of global FDI in Bangladesh since our government took over in 2009 reflects the increasing confidence of the foreign investment in Bangladesh. The strategic location of Bangladesh provides tremendous potential for being the economic hub of the region. With India on the west, China on the north and South-East Asia on the east, Bangladesh is in the middle of a combined market of 4 billion people.

The trade and investment between our two countries are increasing. The volume of bilateral trade has steadily grown during the past years. The balance of trade, however, is still largely in India's favour. The volume of trade between the two countries is nearly 10 billion dollars. In 2018, Bangladesh was India's eighth largest export destination with 8.8 billion dollars export and our export to India also crossed 1 billion dollar mark for the first time. So, the progress is visible but there is a lot of scope for further deepening our relations in the area of trade and investment.

We know that most of the growing economies in the world have undertaken their primary trade and investment projects in their neighbouring countries. In a similar manner, Indian business leaders could play a very big role in furthering our economic prospects and together we would build "Sonar Bangla" or Golden Bangladesh, as dreamt by the Father of our Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. That would also be the best tribute we can pay to our martyrs and freedom fighters.

In conclusion, I would say, currently Bangladesh and India are enjoying the best of relations. The political leaderships are committed to ensuring the right kind of enabling environment. The platform is there

and we are ready to provide every assistance to facilitate entrepreneurial endeavours.

I would urge everyone to make the best use of the platform and contribute to the economies of both countries for the greater mutual benefits of our people. And, thereby, we could make our countries and the region as a whole more prosperous and free from hunger and poverty.

(This article is an excerpt from Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina's address at the India-Bangladesh Business Forum held on October 4, 2019, in New Delhi)