|
|
Change Your Life! |
US FDI in Bangladesh may hit $ 2.3b in 2-3 yrs |
|
News
|
March
11, 2000 Foreign
Direct Investment (FDI) from the United States to Bangladesh rose to 700
million US dollars in three years from a paltry sum of $25 million
following opening up of gas and oil sectors to the foreign companies for
exploration and production, reports BBS. The
US Embassy in Dhaka estimates that American investment I Bangladesh would
go up to 2.3 billion US dollars within two to four years if the projects
in the pipeline and those under proposal were completed. President
of American Chamber in Bangladesh Forest E Cookson told BSS yesterday that
the country may receive another 600 million US dollars in the next one
year if Bangladesh opens up more of its sectors allowing export to India.
He said that the investment would come on two counts – one in the
development activities and the other in sales proceeds of the explored
gas. The
AmCham president said UNICOL and Shell, two reputed oil companies, would
spend 250 million us dollars in development activities for new exploration
each, while 100 million US dollars would be earned from the marketing of
gas alone. Income
form the sale precedes is expected to pick up in the nest two years after
streamlining of the required marketing operations. Cookson
earlier said that that expected US President Bill Clinton to propose
Bangladesh to open up its gas sector for export during his talks with
Bangladesh leaders. “But
I don’t think anything big will be decided during the visit of the US
president Perhaps, the president will encourage Bangladesh to commit to
export some Trillion Standard Cubic Feet (TCF) of gas.” he said. According
to official estimate, Bangladesh’s proven natural gas reserves is 10.7
TCF Patrobangla and two foreign firms produce an average of 930 million
TCF per day, supplying 75 percent of Bangladesh’s commercial energy
demand. An inadequate gas transmission system is considered by expired by
experts as a serious obstacle to growth. US
sources said the other prospective sector for American firms in Bangladesh
include power generation, telecommunications, computers, aircraft parts
and ground support equipment, textile machinery, architecture and
construction engineering services. The
bilateral trade imbalance continued to be in favor of the US in calendar
year 1998, when it reached a record 1.53 billion US dollars, up from 1.42
billion in 1997 and 0.93 billion US dollars in 1996. Experts attributed
the deficit to increase exports of Bangladesh garments to US market. US
Department of Commerce documents show that in 1998, US import form
Bangladesh reached 1.85 billion Us dollars, which was 10 percent up form
the pervious year increased eight percent to 331 million US dollars. For
the second year in a row, US export to Bangladesh increased by 23 percent
to reach 328 million US dollars in calendar year 1998. Export figures for
January-June, 1999 show exports form the US was down by about 13 percent
while Bangladeshi exports to US fell by one per cent. Source:
The Daily Star |