Bangladesh Advised to Diversify Exports

The European Union has said Bangladesh must look at export diversification and attracting more foreign direct investment seriously to make the country’s “very admirable and amazing” economic growth sustainable, UNB reported. It said Bangladesh has witnessed over 7% of GDP growth over the last couple of years. “It’s still a challenge and progress in these areas will depend on domestic reforms agenda,” EU Ambassador in Dhaka Rensje Teerink told UNB in an interview. She said Bangladesh really needs to look at how it can attract businesses and give this confidence to investors that there will be ease of doing business. “Bangladesh isn’t performing well at all in terms of ease of doing business,” said the EU envoy. Bangladesh has gone one notch down in the World Bank’s ranking of ease of doing business mainly due to the hurdle businesses face here at the start of their operations. Bangladesh holds 177th position among 190 economies, according to the WB’s Doing Business report 2018. She said the government’s plan to have 100 economic zones sounds good  but at the same time is very ambitious.