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Safety concerns may shrink FDI: AmCham

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Bangladesh yesterday expressed deep concern over the safety of foreign investors, which it said might have a negative impact on foreign investment in the country.
Referring to, and condemning, the reported threat to World Bank Country Director Christine I Wallich, AmCham President Aftabul Islam said such incidents issue clear signals of what lies ahead.
"If the World Bank country director feels insecure, it's needless to
speculate what the foreign investors here are feeling and what will be the impact of such a situation on future foreign investment," Aftab remarked.
He was speaking at a luncheon meeting of the chamber at a city hotel, with US Ambassador to Bangladesh Harry K Thomas attending as the chief guest. Visiting US States Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for South Asian Affairs Torkel L Patterson was also present.
The AmCham chair said before Bangladesh had barely recovered from one of the worst floods of its
history came the gruesome grenade attack on a public rally of the main opposition party, leaving the nation in grief and horror.
Bangladesh has been witnessing stray bomb attacks during the last few years, observed Aftab, but the incident on August 21 targeted the hard-earned democracy of the nation.
He said the attack was well planned and professionally executed so as to cause maximum deaths and destruction. "It appears to be a concerted effort to destabilise a country which has earned the reputation of a moderate Muslim state and achieved a 5.5 percent average growth in the last one decade," noted the president of the influential chamber.
He said an obvious motive of the attackers was to malign that image of Bangladesh by portraying it as "a den of terrorists".
Aftab also deplored the August 21 incident, which, he pointed out, came ahead of a scheduled visit of a big investment group with an investment proposal worth billions of dollars.
He urged the government to get working to stop such incidents and make the probe reports credible and public to instil confidence in people and theinvestors.
Speaking at the function, Harry K Thomas said the key problem facing Bangladesh was not the incident of August 21 but education.
A major concern should be the fact that almost 50 percent of the population do not have access to education, remarked the US envoy.
In answer to a query of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers' and Exporters' Association (BGMEA) President Annisul Huq on possibility of market access of Bangladeshi goods to US under a free trade agreement (FTA), Thomas said the USA currently is examining a trade and investment framework agreement (TIFA) before going for a FTA.
Responding to Huq's observation that, from 2000, on an average, Bangladesh had been losing 25 percent of US garment market, Torkel L Patterson said, to face post-MFA challenges, Bangladesh should concentrate on making its products more competitive to boost its garment exports to every market rather than seeking preferential treatment.
He said Bangladesh should take advantage of its geographical location, where it has two of the world's fastest growing economies, China and India, as neighbours and being on the edge of theAsean.
"You have the best highway -- the Bay of Bengal -- but unfortunately the turnaround time of a ship here is as long as four days," Patterson said.
"If Bangladesh could make its ports more efficient by cutting the turnaround time down to a day, given the cheapest labour, you should be able to make your products competitive and gain market in every country," the US high official pointed out.
He said it is unfortunate that Bangladesh is still got stuck in red tape and politicking.