BE Magazine

29
Having ensured strong and steady market
fundamentals, the six sectors are recognized as key
sectors for supporting sustainable economic growth
in Bangladesh. These sectors are poised to earn more
than 60 billion dollars at the end of 2023.
Alice Wells’s visit to Bangladesh
The US Acting Assistant Secretary Alice Wells in her
early November visit to Bangladesh affirmed that US
wants to make big investments in Bangladesh, under
the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS). The three major
components of IPS are economy, governance and
security.
Significant part of Alice Wells’s conversation with
the Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and Home
Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, at their
respective ministries, focused on the possibilities of
improving foreign direct investments and expanding
American business in Bangladesh.
Earlier in June this year, Alice Wells sought
Congressional support for the Bay of Bengal Initiative,
when she spoke before a House foreign affairs
subcommittee, and urged the lawmakers to support
her department’s request for a US $30million in
funding for the initiative that will build maritime and
border security capacity for Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,
and the Maldives. This fund was in addition to
the $64 million already announced by the Donald
Trump administration to support the region’s digital
connectivity and bolster cyber security.
New Deals and Initiatives
The US Ambassador in Dhaka Earl Miller led a
delegation of 17 Bangladeshi companies to the Indo-
Pacific Business Forum in Bangkok. The forum was
SOURCE: www.bdembassyusa.org
organized by the US State Department and was held
on November 4 in Bangkok, in the presence of the US
Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia,
Alice Wells.
Over 1,000 business and government leaders from
the United States and across the Indo-Pacific region
gathered for the Indo-Pacific Business Forum to
promote the value of high-standard investment,
transparency, rule of law, and private-sector-led
economic development.
The US officials and business executives at the Forum
in Bangkok highlighted a range of commercial deals
and new initiatives for Bangladesh.
New deals for Bangladesh:
• New York based GE Power announced a $390 million
power plant near Dhaka, that will supply power to
700,000 homes by 2022. GE Power also developed
the $350 million Meghnaghat 600-megawatt natural
gas power plant near Dhaka that is expected to start
commercial operations by 2021.
• Florida-based APR Energy invested in a 300
MW power plant and will support more than 100
sustainable jobs for Bangladeshis.
• Texas-based Excelerate recently commissioned a
floating storage and regasification unit at the Summit
LNG terminal to double Bangladesh’s LNG import
capacity, building on Excelerate’s$500 million
investment in the Moheshkhali floating LNG terminal,
Bangladesh’s first LNG import infrastructure.
• Coca-Cola announced investment plans in excess
of $200 million in Bangladesh through 2024. The
company supports 29,300 jobs throughout the country
and estimates that one Coca-Cola job supports 48
other jobs in Bangladesh.
foreign direct Investment
December, 2019
Monthly business magazine