Bangladesh eyes big investment deals as Saudi FM arrives in Dhaka

DHAKA: Bangladesh was hopeful of signing a number of major investment deals with Saudi Arabia during a two-day visit to Dhaka by the Kingdom’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, officials said on Tuesday. The prince flew into the Bangladeshi capital on Tuesday afternoon and was scheduled to meet the country’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday and lay the foundation stone for the Arabic Language Institute of the Islamic Arabic University in Dhaka. Sirazul Islam, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority, said projects worth billions of dollars would be discussed during Prince Faisal’s trip.
“Most of the Saudi Investment proposals are involving the public sector. Further investments from Saudi Arabia will depend mostly on our success of handling the investment proposals in the pipeline,” Islam added.“At the moment we can’t exactly predict the volume of investment as it depends on the success of discussions. But we hope it will be billions (of dollars) and there will be a whole gamut of discussions.” The projects are related to oil refineries, gas transmission, fertilizer production, aviation, port management, construction, and hospitality.
Islam said that among the Saudi companies that had expressed interest in investing in Bangladesh were oil giant Aramco, transformer producer Engineering Dimensions, utility provider ACWA Power, industrial conglomerate Al-Fanar Group, and Al-Hokair Group, one of the largest entertainment and hospitality firms in the Middle East. – Monitorin Desk