Bangladesh Economic Development News

Increasing Bangladesh Needs

Bangladesh needs more electricity. In an effort to deal with this, the country is currently trying to acquiesce a further $7bn from foreign investments to construct power plants to respond to this need. According to Senior VP of the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Saudi Arabia, Mahbubul Alam, it is actually worth investing in the country as he has found “lucrative returns” for his country. Indeed, as noted in a recent article, Alam said Bangladesh has developed “massive programs for infrastructure development in partnership with private sectors.”

Electricity Needs

Bangladesh’s population is thriving which is of course a good thing. But the 160 million inhabitants are developing greater needs which are not being fulfilled by the country’s “poorly maintained electricity grid which sees frequent outages during the peak months.” Clearly something needs to be done and a big investment would for sure be a great first step. The fact that the country’s power sector has now opened up to private investment is a good step in the right direction too. Bangladesh is offering a whole slew of new incentives for “private power producers” as well, such as not having to pay corporate income tax for up to 15 years and a waiving of custom duties for plant and equipment import. An agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation was also signed a few months ago.