Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today asked the authorities concerned to work with utmost sincerity to make the country�s investment environment more attractive to advance the national economy further.
�We want to take our economy forward further and make our investment atmosphere more attractive. So, we�ve to give more attention to this matter and also work hard to attain this goal,� she said.
The prime minister said this while delivering her introductory speech at a meeting of the governing body of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) through a videoconference from her official Ganabhaban residence here this morning.
About the coronavirus impact on the investment and economy in the country, the prime minister said all the nations of the world are facing the same problem.
�We�ve to advance by combating this problem. We�ve to bring more investment � we�ve (huge) population and created many facilities including development of lands for investors,� she said.
�So we�ve to work hard to make the investment atmosphere more attractive by utilising these facilities to build �Sonar Bangla� as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,� she added.
Sheikh Hasina said the country could have advanced further if the coronavirus pandemic did not hit the world. �It�s right the coronavirus put a blow on the country. But it has also created a scope for us. We�ve to keep this in mind,� she added.
The prime minister said Bangladesh achieved 8.1 percent GDP growth and was on the way to attain 8.2 percent. �Unfortunately, the coronavirus has stalled this progress.�But we should not stop here � we�ve to work amid this situation and we�ve to take measures so that investment comes to the country,� she said.
Spelling out her government�s steps for attracting more investment in the country and making trade and business easier, the prime minister said her government is setting up 100 special economic zones across the country so that local and foreign entrepreneurs can make investment there easily.
�We�re establishing these economic zones so that the entrepreneurs don�t face problem for land in setting up mills and factories and development is not made only at a single place,� she added.