Bangladesh does not want Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) only in the form of funds, but also in the form of minds, thoughts, intelligence and individuals, the foreign ministry told US global investment management firm T Rowe Price Group on Thursday.

Foreign ministry’s International trade, investment and ICT Director general Syed Muntasir Mamun and officers of the International Trade, Investment and Technology Wing and ICT wings had a meeting with the representatives of the US firm, a press release said.

The delegates suggested that for successful utilisation of the special economic zones and attracting foreign companies, Bangladesh would need to highlight shining examples of companies that achieved great success after setting up business.

Founded in 1937, T Rowe Price manages a portfolio of nearly 1.5 trillion $ funds.

Johannes Loefstrand, portfolio manager of the frontier markets equity fund, Sebastian Murphy, investment analyst, and Rainbow Moore, investment analyst from T Rowe Price, participated in the meeting.

They enquired about the actions taken for attracting more foreign direct investment, changes taking place in Bangladesh, initiatives for increasing export volume to strengthen the export-led economy of Bangladesh, activities and success of special economic zones and the digitalisation process.

Muntasir mentioned the strength and technical excellence of human resources in Bangladesh, the size and texture of the domestic market, strong connectivity to northeastern India and South and East Asia in general, increased participation of women in the workforce and also in the leadership roles, booming local businesses, digitalisation, infrastructure in terms of connectivity and investment options that available here.

Agencies like the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA), Public Private Partnership Authority, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), and the Ministry of Commerce are working very hard to improve the ease of doing business and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) is work as a bridge to give the foreign investors full support 24x7, the DG said.

MoFA has set up the International Trade, Investment and Technology Wing to facilitate and support foreign investors in every step of the process, he added.

Muntasir also shared the ministry's plan to build a neural network for facilitating connections among markets and facilitating the flow of funds and technology.

MoFA is also working on deploying a blockchain solution to entrench a data authentication protocol into the existing paper-based system, the DG said.