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INTERVIEW

Deepening ties with UK

Chairman of Bangladesh British Chamber of Commerce speaks to wStar

Refayet Uliaii Mi rdha
Local entrepreneurs can hardly exploit the opportunities of the historic relationship between England and Bangladesh despite having a lot of potential for enhancing bilateral trade and commerce.
Every year, thousands of people make reciprocal trips in and out of both countries. But the economic relationship remained at bay in the laxity of guidance and initiatives. Still the country has a better chance for improving for exploiting the bilateral economic relations to extract the maximum benefits.
Those who were brought up in England with Bangladeshi identity are showing interest to come to their parents' or grandfather's motherland to invest as the country has been maintaining good economic growth over the last few years.
The young generation has already invested a lot of money in real estate, hotels and airline businesses in Bangladesh.
The Bangladeshi-born British citizens and young generation now want to invest in ICT, telecom, hospitality and tourism businesses, said Chairman of Bangladesh British Chamber of Commerce (BBCC) Shahagir Bakth Faruk.
Shahagir, who attended the celebration of the golden jubilee of Dhaka Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, spoke to The Daily Star in his hotel suite where he outlined prospects and problems in enhancing bilateral trade and commerce and industries between the two countries.
Shahagir, born in Sylhet, went to London 35 years ago in
search of higher education in physics, but did not return after the completion of his study as he rather tried to exploit the business opportunities between the two countries.
Now, he is the owner of some enterprises and looks
forward to Investing in Bangladesh in the government's proposed special economic zones (SEZs) in Sylhet.
In this connection, a 47-rnember business delegation is coming to Bangladesh from England on November 9 to conduct a feasibility study to invest in the SEZs.
The members of the delegation, most of them nonresident Bangladeshis (NRBs), will go to Sylhet to see how to invest in the government's proposed Sylhet Special Economic Zone. They will also visit Chittagong to see the business opportunities, Shahagir said.
The visiting team will hold several seminars and conferences to disseminate information related to business opportunities among the entrepreneurs and real investors.
They are also scheduled to meet with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and high-ups of the government to address their problems in investment in Bangladesh being NRBs.
During the conversation he said the BBCC has already opened four chapters including in France, Greece, The Netherlands and Italy to bring all the NRBs living in Europe under one roof in 2006. The BBCC emerged to promote, protect and strengthen bilateral businesses in 1991.
"We have a plan to open
BBCC chapters in all 27 member countries of EU nations," Shahagir said.
About the exports from Bangladesh to England he said at present jute, jute goods, pharmaceuticals, ceramic (Bone China) frozen fish, bicycles, ready-made garment (RMG) products are some of the major products exported to Britain, he was saying.
The European people have already nicknamed Bangladesh as the "Tailor of the World" for the country's finest RMG products.
"We should uphold such a very prestigious name for the sack of industrial survival of the country. Bangladesh is the in the fourth position in garment export in EU," he said.
China is in the first position, second is Turkey and India is in third position. Bangladesh earns more than S5 billion from garment export in EU, industry insiders said.
Shahagir, a holder of the prestigious title "Freeman of the City of London" said the image of Bangladesh outside of the country should be upheld for attracting more and more investment both from NRBs and foreign direct investment (FDI).
"Toady in Britain we became able to make them understand that Bangladesh is no more a land of flood, cyclone and famine, now the country exports more than $ 15
billion in a year and serving the human beings of the world through thousands of ways," a proud Shahagir said.
Even a few years ago, the Bangladeshi owners of restaurants in England used the Indian names for attracting more and more customers to their restaurants, as the customers were reluctant to come to Bangladeshi ones.
"Now more than 12,000 restaurants in England owned by Bangladeshis are running almost every corner of England in Bangladeshi names as people come to such restaurants to have delicious Bengal specialities," he said.
"Despite having problems here, many other expatriates are being encouraged to invest in their roots. If we create some examples of successful ventures, then other NRBs will of course come to their ancestral home with big investments," he said.
He said around more than 600,000 NRBs from Bangladesh are living in England.
The government should come forward to remove all barriers in the way attracting more investment from NRBs living in the UK.
He said the government's one-stop service should work in real sense for attracting the FDI in the country.
reefat@thedailysta r. net