18th October 2012 held a seminar on Invest in Bangladesh organized by the Sweden Bangladesh Business Council together with the Swedish Trade Council, Swedish Trade and the Embassy of Bangladesh. It was the first time in history this kind of seminar ever took place in Sweden. The Ambassador of Bangladesh invited a delegation from Bangladesh. The delegation consisted of high officials from the government of Bangladesh and representatives from Board of Investment and companies.
The focus of the seminar was namely shipbuilding and recycling, clean tech, textile, pharmaceuticals, ICT and tourism. The interactive part of the seminar gave the participant a unique opportunity to know more about investment climate in and available incentives offered by Bangladesh, its potential investment sectors and readiness of Bangladesh to take FDI from Sweden and other Nordic countries along with the opportunity of discussion about various business related issues thereof. Bangladesh offers very low production costs and hence it has become the cost efficient production hub in the world. Bangladesh is growing as one of the most popular outsourcing destinations in the world. Hence, Goldman Sachs recognizes Bangladesh as one of the ‘Next Eleven (N-11)’. Also the European Commission has recently identified Bangladesh as one of the top IT outsourcing destinations in the world. JP Morgan has labeled Bangladesh as one of the ‘frontier five’ and in the same line, Investor Chronicle has titled Bangladesh among the “seven hottest emerging markets”.
It was a successful seminar in all aspects. The participants were Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish companies, and a representative from Swedish Innovation and the Royal University of Technology.