Finland keen to invest in Bangladesh

Finland has expressed interest in investing in various sectors in Bangladesh.

The country has spotted high prospects of pursuing joint partnership in sectors such as education, information and communication technology, artificial intelligence, financial instruments, health, renewable energy, sustainable forestry, smart agriculture, among others.

A Finnish delegation discussed the investment prospects at a seminar styled 'Doing Business with Finland' at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the city on Sunday. 

The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries and the Finnpartnership jointly organised the seminar, in association with the Embassy of Finland in New Delhi. 

Agriculture Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque attended the seminar as the chief guest, while FBCCI President Sheikh Fazle Fahim chaired it.  

Abdur Razzaque reiterated the Bangladesh government's commitment to creating a conducive environment for foreign direct investment and looked forward to a higher degree of Finnish investment in the country. 

He further highlighted Bangladesh's successes in agriculture and climate change adaptation.

Sheikh F Fahim emphasised on Bangladesh's stable macro-economic growth trajectory and its development in the past one decade. He also highlighted the FBCCI's role as the umbrella trade organisation in complementing the government initiatives. 

The FBCCI has been addressing some critical issues including knowledge transfer for the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), AI, regulatory planning, SDG goals, industry-academia gap assessment, reskilling, technology transfer and so on. 

Other issues discussed at the programme included strengthening people-to-people relations, investment and trade relations between the two countries. The bilateral trade between the two countries at present stands at US$244.5 million.

Bangladesh's export to Finland was US$39.50 million, and import was US$205 million in FY2018-19.

Two presentations on 'Finnpartnership and Finnfund Services' and 'Doing Business with Finland' were made respectively by Birgit Nevala, programme director of Finnpartnership, and Patrik Bredbacka, programme officer of Finnpartnership.

Those presentations highlighted the business prospects between the two countries. 

Titta Maja, director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland (Unit for South Asia), and FBCCI Vice President Md Rejaul Kariem also addressed the seminar.

FBCCI Vice President Nizam Rajesh, FBCCI directors and representatives from different banks and industrial organisations, among others, participated at the seminar.