Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at the opening of Bangladesh-Singapore Business Forum 2018 at Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore yesterday. Photo: PID

Be our development partner

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday invited the business community in Singapore to be Bangladesh’s partners in its journey towards economic development as the country was now transforming.

“Bangladesh has a huge young, energetic and easily trainable workforce with competitive wages. It offers opportunities for duty and quota-free access to the markets of the EU, Australia, Canada, India, Japan and New Zealand,” she said.

The prime minister was speaking at the opening of Bangladesh-Singapore Business Forum 2018, which was jointly organised by International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, Singapore Business Federation and Bangladesh Business Chamber of Singapore (BDCham) at Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore.

Sheikh Hasina announced to provide Singaporean businessmen an additional 500 acres of land in any designated space, especially in the Mirsarai economic zone at Chittagong. Singaporean Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang, IE Singapore acting CEO Kathy Lai and the federation Chairman Teo Siong Seng also spoke on the occasion.

Describing Bangladesh’s success in the ready-made garment sector, Sheikh Hasina said the volume of textiles export was almost $30 billion in 2017, coming second after China, and the country wants to increase the amount to $50 billion by 2021.