FICCI Stories

As the President of one of the country's oldest and most prestigious chambers of the country, indeed, this is my honour and immense pleasure to welcome everyone to the FICCI Quarterly Newsletter, March 2022. Since its inception, the FICCI Newsletter has successfully become the platform to transfer the Chamber and its member company's stories and news to the relevant stakeholders, ranging from the Government regulatory agencies, development partners, current and potential foreign investors, and foreign embassies and missions etc. At present, the FICCI Quarterly is established as the voice of foreign investors in Bangladesh.

As a Chamber, we represent and aim to protect the interest of the foreign investors in Bangladesh. The Chamber and its member companies are effortlessly working not only on the socio-economic development of Bangladesh but also actively making meaningful impact directly on 21 industries directly and many more indirectly. FICCI members proudly contributing more than quarter of internal revenue of the Government and are directly responsible for more than 90% of inward FDI in Bangladesh. Furthermore, the FICCI member companies are the proud partners and associates in implementing the Government's vision of Digital Bangladesh. Most importantly, the Chamber not only contributes to the economy but also promotes and encourages its member companies to contribute to the societies more actively as part of their sustainable business strategies and practices.

Despite the unprecedented challenges of the global pandemic, the economy of Bangladesh remained resilient in the last two years, with the economic growth being the highest amongst the South Asian countries during the 2020-2022 period. The sign of post pandemic economic recovery is evident through significantly accelerated economic activities in both industries and services sectors, which in turn is mobilising greater private sector investment to cope with growing demand. However, the elevated structural risks and uncertainty in the global economy may have a short to medium term impact on our economic progress. It is important to enhance efficiency and expand productivity to remain resilient amidst this period of volatility.

One of the key pillars for enhancing private sector contribution to economic growth is optimising cost of doing business. FICCI is actively engaging with key regulators and policymakers with specific recommendations for an enabling business climate. There has been a series of such engagements during the first quarter of 2022 with following regulators, authorities, and key stakeholders. Expectation on expanding the economic contribution of foreign investors and how it can be enabled were exchanged through these engagements.

Thought leadership as the eminent representative of foreign investors in Bangladesh has enabled FICCI to be a critical partner to the Government’s vision of driving FDI contribution to GDP. FICCI has partnered with Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) to showcase Bangladesh as a preferred destination for foreign investments in target sectors, and to drive advocacy for business-friendly policies. FICCI is also integrated with BIDA’s One Stop Services (OSS), where our members and potential investors can avail investor services of both BIDA and FICCI.

To enhance FICCI’s role as an advocate for enabling policy framework, we had pursued with the Ministry of Commerce to continue recognising the chamber as a full member. I am very happy to share that the draft Trade Organisation Act 2022 was amended to recognise the Chamber as a full member and as the sole trade organisation to represent foreign investors in Bangladesh. Our policy advocacy role was also extended to the realm of the draft Income Tax Act, where we provided consolidated recommendation from our members. In addition, we have also shared the collective recommendation of FICCI members on the National Budget in multiple forums.

FICCI represents foreign investors who are actively participating and leading in more than 21 economic sectors. The true potential of FICCI lies within global best practices and intimate knowledge of the local market of our members, which can enable significant growth opportunities across these sectors. In order to focus our efforts to drive advocacy and through leadership, we have established the following nine committees.

Our objective is to leverage the depth of our broader membership through these committees, so that we can incorporate the valued feedback of our members to form impactful policy actions. We will need active participation from all our members to establish FICCI as the undisputable leader in representing foreign investors by creating unique value for all our members.

We will soon circulate a survey to get the views from all our members in this regard. I would be grateful to my fellow members for their active participation in this survey.

I would like to thank all the industry leaders and experts for their excellent contributions that greatly enriched the Newsletter. I also want to thank the patrons and sponsors of the FICCI Quarterly for their assistance and support. Finally, I would like to thank the FICCI Secretariate for their tireless effort in publishing the Newsletter on time.

I am looking forward to the feedback, comments, and invaluable inputs from our esteemed member companies to enrich the upcoming FICCI Newsletter.

With Thanks and Regards,

Naser Ezaz Bijoy

President, FICCI