Even as Chinese textile and garments businessmen were top in position with their US $ 44.15 million worth of investment in Bangladesh while those from leather and leather products had also come forward to invest around US $ 10.73 million in Bangladesh, which placed them in third position in terms of sectoral investment as per Bangladesh’s central bank, Bangladesh Bank, experts and analysts have maintained that Chinese investment bound for new destinations following US-China trade war, has bypassed Bangladesh largely.
Media reports maintained this while adding that China’s gross investment in the country (Bangladesh) amounted to only US $ 122.54 million in the last calendar year, 2020, even if in the previous calendar year of 2019, Chinese investment was recorded at a higher amount of US $ 695.65 million.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s competitor in the realm of apparel manufacturing and export, Vietnam has, reportedly, made the most of the windfall as China’s investment in Vietnam in the January-November period in 2020 was recorded at US $ 2.4 billion (as per the data of Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam) while the expected diversion of Chinese investment to Bangladesh shied away in 2020 even if experts and economists in Bangladesh were optimistic about it.
