Bureaucratic delays, along with lax enforcement of labour laws, corruption, limited number of financing instruments, continue to hinder Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Bangladesh.
This was underlined by the United States recently in its report on Investment Climate Statement Chapter of the Country Commercial Guide.
As per the report released on 28 July, Government efforts to improve the business environment in recent years have showed promises, but implementation was yet to materialise even as it highlighted a slow adoption of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and sluggish judicial processes as impediments to the enforcement of contracts and the resolution of business disputes.
According to the data,the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Bangladesh received US $ 2.56 billion FDI in 2020, with the rate of FDI inflow being only 0.77 per cent of the gross domestic product, which is said to be one of the lowest rates in Asia.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s overall FDI stock was US $ 20.87 billion through the end of September 2021 even if the US report also noted Bangladesh would likely continue to attract increasing investment, despite severe economic headwinds created by the COVID-19 pandemic, globally.