No less than 300 local organisations, particularly agro-makers and clothing producers, are looking to put resources into African nations to snatch the advantages of the rising economies of the landmass.
Mr. Amin Helali, secretary of Bangladesh Africa Investment Forum said that, “(They) contacted us to make investments in Africa. Many Bangladeshi investors have already poured money into different projects in Africa. Most of these investors belong to the group of people who left the country years ago for jobs and are now residing in African countries. They did not make investment in Africa by remitting money from Bangladesh.”
He also said, “The agro producers want to invest in Africa thanks to the availability of vast areas suitable for cultivation of vegetables and rice and the presence of a potential market to sell the produce. We need a guideline from the banking watchdog which can ensure protection of the money Bangladeshi businesses invest abroad.”
Bangladesh Bank has so far got more than 100 applications looking for consent to put resources into Africa and gave permission to six of them. The interest in agro-items and prepared sustenance is high in Africa. For example, the foods prepared in Bangladesh by Brac, Pran and Square have gigantic demand in African nations. The garment makers need to put resources into Africa to appreciate the zero-obligation advantage that the US provides for the items made in Africa under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). The administration has given the green light to nearby DBL Group to put resources into the African clothing segment.
MA Jabbar, managing director of DBL Group, a Bangladeshi garment exporter said, “We have started production in our Ethiopian factory in May this year. We will make the first shipment this month (June)”. He also said that he has a target to export $38 million worth of garment items from the Ethiopian plant every year.
Helali, also the director of Dosh Disha Group, consented to an arrangement with the Ugandan horticultural service to get 20,000 hectares of land for cultivating paddy and other agro items. The task is yet to be executed as the administration is deferring to give endorsement for remote speculation.
Bangladeshi organisations looked for the administration’s help to put resources into African countries some time before their partners in other Asian nations, yet they are as yet lingering behind. Pioneers of the International Business Forum of Bangladesh (IBFB), a stage of financial specialists, asked the administration to plan a particular approach to enable organisations to contribute abroad the same number of local modern aggregates as are currently equipped for doing such.
Chowdhury Nazia Iffat Dristi, Department of Business Administration, East West University
