Foreign Direct Investment: Impact on Sectoral Growth in Bangladesh

Introduction

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a potent weapon of developing the Bangladesh economy and can play an important role in achieving the country’s socio-economic objectives including poverty reduction goals. In a capital-poor country like Bangladesh, FDI can emerge as a significant vehicle to build up physical capital, create employment opportunities, develop productive capacity, enhance skills of local labor through transfer of technology and managerial know-how, and help integrate the domestic economy with the global economy. This policy note provides an assessment of the current situation of FDI in Bangladesh and examines its impact on the country’s balance of payments. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is capital provided by a foreign direct investor, either directly or through other related enterprises, where the foreign investor is directly involved in the management of the enterprise. Until the1980s, most developing countries viewed FDI with great weariness. In recent years, however FDI restrictions have been significantly reduced. Most countries offer incentives to attract FDI, such as tax concessions, tax holidays, accelerated depreciation on plants and machinery, export subsidies and import entitlements etc. As a developing country, Bangladesh needs FDI for its ongoing development process. Since independence, Bangladesh is trying to be a suitable location for FDI. Special zones have been set up and lucrative incentive packages have been provided to attract FDI. However, the total inflow of FDI has been increasing over the years. In 1972, annual FDI inflow was 0.090 million USD, and after 33 years, in 2007 annual FDI came to 760 million USD. Still political tension and lack of investment friendly bureaucratic attitude are often pointed out by potential investors as the