The amount of proposed foreign and local investments in the country declined by 51.55 per cent or $7.58 billion in 2020 compared with that in 2019 due mainly to the global economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 918 local and foreign farms made investment proposals worth $7.12 billion in 2020 against $14.71 billion in investment proposals made by 1,153 farms in the previous year, according to Bangladesh Investment Development Authority data.

Experts said that the COVID-19 was the key reason for the decline in investment proposals in the country as the economic activities remained limited in the globe due to the pandemic.

Along with the COVID-19, lack of improvement in ease of doing business situation was another key reason for the decline in investment registration in the country in 2020, they said.

The BIDA data showed that investment proposals from foreign and joint venture companies fell by 51.31 per cent or $2.39 billion in 2020 compared with that in the previous year.

A total of 112 foreign and joint venture companies made investment proposals worth $2.26 billion in 2020 from the proposals worth $4.66 billion from 185 farms in 2019.

Registration of local investment proposals in 2020 plunged by 51.66 per cent or $5.19 billion, the data showed.

According to the BIDA, a total of 806 local farms made investment proposals worth $4.85 billion in 2020 against $10.05 billion in investment proposals made by 968 farms in 2019.

‘The amount of investment proposals has declined in 2020 due mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic as all the world is going through an abnormal situation,’ BIDA executive chairman Md Sirazul Islam told New Age on Thursday.

He said that the intra-company loans declined by 84 per cent and equity investment witnessed a drastic fall in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Sirazul said that although the amount of proposed foreign direct investments declined by 51 per cent in 2020, reinvestment of FDI, however, increased by 11 per cent in the year.

‘Bangladesh is one of the highly prospective countries in the world and I hope once the pandemic is over the investment situation will rebound,’ he said.

Ahsan H Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh, however, differed with the BIDA executive chairman’s views, saying that the decline in proposed investments by 51 per cent in 2020 was abnormal as the investments in China and India posted a record growth in the year despite the pandemic.

‘Attitude is one of the key problems to attract FDI in the country. Many companies are harassed in many ways and the situation sends negative message to foreign investors. Only the formulation of laws cannot improve situation rather the government will have to take initiatives to ensure harassment-free business environment for the investors in the country,’ he said.

Ahsan said that BIDA was trying but all the government agencies should work in unison to improve the ease of doing business situation.

‘Once the COVID-19 will over, the country’s investment situation will pick up but not in a required pace as Bangladesh is still not investment friendly,’ Ahsan added.