Tran Dai Quang, president of Vietnam; Tofail Ahmed, commerce minister, and Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, president of FBCCI, attend the Vietnam-Bangladesh Business Forum, at Sonargaon hotel in Dhaka Yesterday. Photo: Star

Vietnamese keen to invest in telecom, textile

Vietnam wants to invest in telecom, agriculture, IT, textile, oil and gas, infrastructure sectors of Bangladesh due the country’s low-cost production facilities and large market, said Tran Dai Quang, president of the Southeast Asian nation. “There is a lot of opportunity for investment given the current size of the economy of Bangladesh,” he said at the ‘Vietnam-Bangladesh Business Forum’, organised yesterday by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Tran went to recommend the Bangladesh government to reform the policies for attracting more foreign investment.

At present, Vietnam has $320 billion of foreign investment due to its improved infrastructures, liberal economic policies and its 6.5 percent to 7 percent growth over the last few years. He suggested Bangladesh for more innovation, higher productivity, adoption of green technologies, expansion of domestic markets, greater transparency and enhanced competitiveness for attracting higher foreign investment.

Vietnam is also keen on taking the bilateral trade between the two countries to $1 billion by the end of this year and to $2 billion by 2020, he said.

At present, bilateral trade between the two international locations is closely tilted in the direction of Vietnam. In fiscal 2016-17, Bangladesh imported items well worth $417 million and exported items worth $66.44 million, according to information from the FBCCI. “We would like to encourage bilateral exchange in rice, agricultural products, cloth and meals processing.”

Tran also counseled Bangladesh on its poverty reduction efforts.

“Actually, I am impressed with Bangladesh’s sizable social and economic development. Bangladesh is a role model in the world in poverty reduction,” he added. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed stated Bangladesh is already a decrease middle-income u . s . a . and very soon the u . s . a . would graduate to the middle-income bracket.

The minister provided a exclusive financial area for Vietnamese investors as the authorities has been growing a hundred such zones across the united states for each nearby and overseas entrepreneurs. The businessmen of each the nations agreed to shape a Bangladesh Vietnam Business Council to center of attention on sectors and modalities to promote exchange and investment between the two countries, said Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, president of FBCCI.

At the enterprise forum, three funding agreements have been signed in the presence of Tran.

In the first agreement, TBS Group, which counts international brands like Coach, Tory Burch, Skechers and Decathlon as its long-term customers, agreed to make investments $100 million in Bangladesh’s leather and leathergoods sector. The agreement was once signed between Saiful Islam, president of Leathergoods and Footwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association of Bangladesh, and Diep Thanh Kiet, vice-chairman of Vietnam Leather, Footwear and Handbag Association.

The different two agreements involve setting up two joint challenge seafood processing companies in Bangladesh. “We will are looking for technologies on shrimp farming from the Vietnamese companies,” stated Belayet Hossain, vice-president of the Bangladesh Frozen Foods Exporters Association, after signing the agreements. Vietnam has been performing very nicely on the export of vannamei range of shrimp.

The neighborhood fish farmers will additionally domesticate the vannamei variety of shrimps as this is greater profitable than the black tiger and clean water shrimps that they presently farm.