In the last two fiscal
years, the private investment in the various industrial sectors of Bangladesh has
decreased. This was caused by both the downgrading global economy and a few
internal issues like shortage of power, infrastructural barriers, fluctuating
inflation rate, frequent changes in policies and strict credit rate.
The recent survey
conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics found that private investment
dropped down 0.37 percent in the ongoing fiscal year. This is the second time
this situation has occurred in the last 20 years. The other time it happened
was in 2009. A few roundtable meetings held by the Centre for Policy Dialogue
discussed about this problem and highlighted three issues as the biggest
factors of the decrease in private investment.
One of the major
problems behind this incidence is the poorly founded infrastructure of the
financial institutes, government policies and the coordination between the
government and the private investors. Difficulty in accessing finance is
another major issue in this case. This is causing the production cost to rise
up and ending up in creating a noticeable distinguish between the local and
foreign market.
Mr. Debopriya
Bhattacharya, one of the fellows of CPD, claimed that corruption and difficulty
in access to finance is causing the private investors to pull away from
investing in Bangladesh.
According to the World Bank, the randomly fluctuating inflation rate and the
tightening of credit system is causing the dip in the private investment.
If the current
government wants to meet up to their target of private investment against the
GDP, they have to take action to resolve these issues. A strong infrastructure
and strictness against corruption might attract more private investors to
invest in Bangladesh.
On a brighter note, local
conglomerates including Square Group, Aftab Group and Transcom has seen a rise in
the current fiscal and contributed to the country’s economy by investing in new
projects and creating employment.
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