British investors keen to invest in aviation, education

British investors are keen to invest in aviation, education and financial sectors in Bangladesh, said British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson.

"We have a direct bilateral trade dialogue now with the Bangladesh government," he said while addressing the "Investment Climate Reforms in Bangladesh: Findings from the End-Term Evaluation of Investment Climate Fund (BICF) Program" in Hotel International, Dhaka on Wednesday (22 February).

Dickson said that the UK will be providing more capital to Bangladesh. "Commonwealth Development Corporation has been reorganised and rebranded. They have increased the amount of capital they're providing to the country, particularly focused on ESD friendly and climate areas."

"This is part of a wider offering which is also backed up by the UK Export Finance; they too have increased the amount of interest in capital they're providing in Bangladesh," he added.

"We are receiving more private sector interest in Bangladesh that will ultimately deliver economic growth.

"The country has great potential to have a much bigger aviation sector than it does now. Airbus UK are keen to become a partner of Bangladesh to develop the aerospace sector here," he said.

The British high commissioner also said that Bangladesh is an environment where good firms can do good business.

"The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) plays a vital role for foreign investments. The British business group who has the experience of doing business here are some of the largest taxpayers and providers of revenue to the NBR from Bangladesh's corporate sector. It's very good for us to be able to discuss in theory and practice of increasing FDI with some of the largest operators here," he added.

Organised by the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), the UK Government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the event shared data and disseminated findings from the BICF programme.

The BICF is World Bank Group's largest single-country advisory facility for private sector development designed to improve the investment climate in Bangladesh funded with UK aid from its government.