Create fair democratic environment to encourage investment

The four-day ‘Bangladesh Investment Summit-2025’, which began last Monday (April 7), ended yesterday (April 10). For the first time in the history of Bangladesh, renowned investors from a record 40 countries including the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Germany, and the UAE participated in it. In addition, the country’s top business executives and policymakers also attended it. During the official inauguration of the investment summit last Wednesday (April 9), Chief Advisor Dr. Muhammad Yunus called on investors to invest in Bangladesh and said, ‘Bangladesh is a country that has great ideas to change the world. These ideas need to be transformed into reality. So we invite you to join the journey of changing not only Bangladesh, but the entire world.

According to the news published in the media yesterday, Thursday (April 10), Bangladesh has signed the 'Artemis Agreement' with the US space research agency NASA. Not only that, major countries of the world have signed agreements for investment. The New Development Bank (NDB) has announced a plan to invest one billion dollars in Bangladesh. A domestic entrepreneur company that markets products has received a large investment of thousands of crores of taka. The government hopes that 15,000 jobs will be created in the country in one to two years. The world-famous Starlink provided 100-120 Mbps speed internet service at the conference. They have already received approval to do business in Bangladesh.

These are words of hope and joy; but the question is, if the democratic environment in the country is not fair, beautiful, healthy and well-organized, will investors ultimately trust it? Although the country's main political parties BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and the new student party NCP have assured foreign investors that there will be political stability in Bangladesh for a fair investment environment; but we know that the country's political future is uncertain. Politicians also know this. In the meantime, a kind of dispute has arisen between the political parties and the interim government over the elections. It is difficult to say how far the ongoing reform process will progress. There is doubt about when the elections will be held. In that case, how much long-term investment will be attracted?

Foreign investment is a second issue, we know that domestic investment has largely stagnated before the elections. Apart from that, there is little information about such a far-reaching plan for investment in heavy industry in Bangladesh. Just as the country's economic system is not solid without heavy industry investment, it also does not lay a solid foundation for democracy. Heavy industry has a deep relationship with a modern democratic state. The difference between today's Europe-America and the underdeveloped countries of Asia-Africa-Latin America is mainly in the ability and inability to establish heavy industries. If we look at the undemocratic countries of the world today, we will see that the ability to establish heavy industries is low. Heavy industries are very important in our country. Without heavy industrialization, the economy of Bangladesh will not be strong, nor will the democratic environment be well-established.

This investment conference is very promising. Especially the way that Chief Adviser and BIDA Chairman Ashiq Chowdhury presented Bangladesh to investors is truly commendable. We want this progress to continue. The fair democratic environment that is needed for this must be well-established and the policymakers and politicians of the state must create it.