FICCI's Investment Expo 2023 to kick off on 8 November

The Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) is going to organize a two-day long Investment Expo 2023 which will run from 8 November to 9 November to celebrate its 60-year journey.

In a press conference held at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Dhaka on Saturday, FICCI president Naser Ezaz Bijoy said, "The investment expo will be held at Radisson Blu Water Garden to commemorate the six decades anniversary of the chamber. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been given her schedule to inaugurate the event as the chief guest."

Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) is the strategic partner of the investment expo.

Naser Ezaz Bijoy said, the key objective of this event is to highlight FICCI's contribution towards developing the country's economy since its inception and the transformative journey of our economy with policy support to ensure an enabling business environment.

"We will showcase the success stories of our member companies as well," he added.

He stated that during the inauguration the Prime Minister will also unveil the report of the FICCI research project titled "Catalyzing greater FDI for vision 2041 Priorities for building a conducive Tax system in Bangladesh" and Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) publication named "ESG Excellence: A Chronicle of FICCI Members."

Regarding the expo FICCI Board of Director and Convenor of the event, Mahbub ur Rahman said, "The 2-day long investment expo will showcase economic resilience, competitiveness, and sectoral investment opportunities of the country within around 40 stalls. FICCI member companies will participate with their new innovations, services, and products which are expected to be visited by different government stakeholders, policymakers, diplomats, development partners, think tanks, business leaders, and other stakeholders including the mass people."

He mentioned, "We will host two plenary sessions regarding "Green Value Chain" and "Investment Climate: Current Landscape and Mission 2041" where the industry practitioners and experts will present their insights on the related topics."

BIDA Acting Executive Chairman Mohsina Yasmin said, "BIDA has been working with FICCI for a long time to promote FDI and improve the investment climate of the country. "

"Our government always welcomes foreign investment since it is the lifeline of the economy. I believe this overall event will encourage the existing foreign investors as well as attract the potential investors to invest in Bangladesh in the near future," she added.

She further said that we have received around $700 million to date this year, but the amount is lower than our target. We could not relate it to the Russia-Ukraine war. It is related to the global economic crisis. We saw that the global FDI shrink compared to the earlier year. So, we are not out of this crisis.

FICCI Vice President Shwapna Bhowmick, Executive Director TIM Nurul Kabir including other directors were present at the press meeting.