Seeking partnership in Bangladesh’s new journey, Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus today (26 September) said they are firm to improve the business environment through multi-prong reforms that they have initiated.
“I am here to hear from you and open to suggestions to improve our investment climate. We seek your partnership in this new journey,” he said in a business luncheon meeting at a hotel in New York.
President of the US-Bangladesh Business Council (USBBC) Ambassador Atul Keshap, among others, spoke at the event.
Bangladesh market is not just a market of 170 million people that is fast emerging as one of the top ten consumer markets of the world, but is also strategically located in the proximity of three billion people of South and Southeast Asia and China, Prof Yunus said.
“No country is perfect. Neither is Bangladesh. But I see an emerging Bangladesh that is committed to uphold freedom and justice,” said the Nobel laureate who is leading the Bangladesh delegation at the United Nations General Assembly.
He told the US business leaders that the United States has long been a key economic and development partner for Bangladesh.
“The US is our number one single-country export destination and the top source of our FDI. But the trade basket is unusually narrow,” he said.
Prof Yunus observed that investment is heavily concentrated in non-risk or low-risk sectors like energy.
“As the US looks for its supply-chain diversification under its Indo-Pacific Policy, Bangladesh is strategically positioned to become a significant partner in fulfilling that goal,” he said.
Prof Yunus said they will do everything to help US businesses grow alongside Bangladesh businesses to diversify the supply chain.
