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Infograph: TBS<\/p>\n
The surge marks a significant shift in the profile of Chinese investment in Bangladesh. Traditionally concentrated in the ready-made garment industry, Chinese companies are increasingly moving into higher value-added manufacturing sectors, including drones, semiconductors, electronics, medical devices, logistics, copper products, and automated hydroponic systems.\n<\/p>\n
Among the 23 Chinese-linked firms, 18 are wholly Chinese-owned, including investors from Hong Kong, with a combined investment of $382.57 million. The remaining companies comprise one China-British Virgin Islands joint venture, two China-Singapore joint ventures and one Samoa-China (Taiwan) joint venture.<\/p>\n
ASM Anwar Parvez, executive director for public relations at Bepza, said Chinese investment is no longer confined to the apparel sector.<\/p>\n
“Chinese investors are now entering high-value-added manufacturing sectors such as drones, electronics, footwear, packaging materials, copper products and hydroponics,” he told The Business Standard.<\/p>\n
According to him, Bepza’s investment seminars, business meetings and one-to-one engagement programmes in China over the past several years have increased awareness of Bangladesh’s EPZs among potential investors.<\/p>\n
Parvez said existing Chinese investors’ positive experiences with Bepza’s services, infrastructure and investment environment had also encouraged fresh investment.<\/p>\n
“Our investors are our biggest ambassadors. In many cases, their suppliers, business partners and affiliated companies are now considering investments in Bangladesh through investor referrals,” he said.<\/p>\n
He added that Bangladesh’s investment-friendly policies, competitive labour force and changing global supply chain dynamics had enhanced the country’s appeal to Chinese manufacturers seeking to diversify their production bases.<\/p>\n
Fresh momentum after PM’s China visit<\/p>\n
The investment drive gained momentum following Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s visit to China from 22 to 26 June, during which several investment-related agreements were signed.<\/p>\n
On 25 June, the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (Beza) signed a memorandum of understanding with China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation to develop the China\u2013Bangladesh Mongla Port Economic Zone on 110 acres of land adjacent to Mongla Port in Bagerhat.<\/p>\n
Beza also exchanged a developer agreement with China Road and Bridge Corporation for the development of the Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone in Chattogram’s Anwara.<\/p>\n
Separately, the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (Bida) signed a memorandum of understanding with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade to strengthen business cooperation, facilitate Chinese investment and improve investor services.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, provisional land allocation has been completed for Handa Industries Ltd at the Keraniganj Economic Zone. The company plans to invest $220 million in its second factory in Bangladesh, a project expected to create around 13,000 jobs.<\/p>\n
Billions in proposals under review<\/p>\n
Following meetings between the prime minister and senior executives of major Chinese companies in Beijing, 12 firms proposed investments worth $9.21 billion across the energy, infrastructure, logistics, manufacturing and education sectors.<\/p>\n
Ashik Chowdhury, executive chairman of Bida and Beza, said the government’s immediate priority is to convert the proposals into actual investments.<\/p>\n
“We cannot guarantee that the entire $9.21 billion will materialise. However, we are trying our best to convert as much of this investment interest as possible into real projects,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Our strategy has two equally important components \u2013 building a strong investment pipeline while simultaneously converting the existing pipeline into actual investments.”<\/p>\n
To support the process, Bida plans to establish an office in China and is working with major Chinese institutions to facilitate implementation.<\/p>\n
Referring to Handa Industries’ investment, Ashik said the project represented a firm commitment rather than a preliminary expression of interest.<\/p>\n
“This is a hard commitment. The company is already operating in Bangladesh, and the land allocation process for its Keraniganj project is progressing. This is a confirmed investment,” he said.<\/p>\n
He added that Beza expected to hold the ground-breaking ceremony for the Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone in Anwara later this month.<\/p>\n
Chinese firms eye Bangladesh expansion<\/p>\n
Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen said the prime minister’s visit has significantly boosted Chinese companies’ confidence in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
Briefing journalists after the visit, the ambassador said the long-delayed Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone in Anwara had made substantial progress, with nearly all documentation completed within four months of the new government taking office.<\/p>\n
According to Yao, more than 30 Chinese companies have already committed around $500 million in investment in the zone.<\/p>\n
He said the prime minister’s meetings with leading Chinese companies in Beijing and Dalian have generated considerable interest and that progress on the Anwara project had sent a strong signal that Bangladesh remained an attractive destination for Chinese investment.<\/p>\n
The ambassador described the investment response from Chinese companies as one of the most significant outcomes of the visit.<\/p>\n
According to Beza, the Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone is being developed on approximately 800 acres in Anwara under a government-to-government initiative.<\/p>\n
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Priority sectors and investor support<\/p>\n
Bida has identified electronics, semiconductors, electric vehicle batteries, advanced textiles, technical textiles, logistics, medical devices and IT-enabled services as priority sectors for Chinese investment.<\/p>\n
Nahian Rahman Rochi, executive member and head of business development at Bida, said Chinese companies had maintained a strong interest in Bangladesh in recent years, although government-level engagement remained critical to investment decisions.<\/p>\n
“Chinese investors place significant importance on strong government-to-government relations and policy certainty when entering a new market. The prime minister’s recent visit has strengthened that confidence,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We confirmed progress on the Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone in Anwara, laid the foundation for developing a second economic zone in Mongla and signed a cooperation agreement with CCPIT, China’s largest state-backed investment promotion organisation. These developments will further strengthen Chinese investors’ confidence in Bangladesh.”<\/p>\n
Rochi said Bida aimed to establish its China office within the next three months. He also disclosed that an additional $340 million in Chinese investment proposals remained in the conversion pipeline.<\/p>\n
Officials believe that, if the proposed investments, commitments and lease agreements are gradually translated into operational projects, Chinese capital could become a major driver of Bangladesh’s next phase of export-oriented industrial growth.<\/p>\n
In response to growing Chinese interest, Bida has established a dedicated support framework for investors from China, including plans for an office in Ganzhou, stronger business-to-government coordination mechanisms and a specialised relationship management team.<\/p>\n
The authority has also launched a China Desk to provide end-to-end assistance and introduced a Chinese-language investment portal offering sector-specific guidelines and information for prospective investors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinese-owned and joint-venture companies accounted for nearly two-thirds of the investment commitments secured by the Bangladesh Export Processing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-542104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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