Bangladesh must remove obstacles for Saudi investment: envoy

[bluesky]

Bangladesh must remove obstacles for Saudi investment: envoy

Saudi Arabian ambassador Essa Yousef Al Duhalian on Thursday said that removing bureaucratic obstacles would ensure investment by potential companies from the kingdom. ‘Prime minister...

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Bangladesh must remove obstacles for Saudi investment: envoy
Bangladesh requires sending skilled workers
Shahidul Islam Chowdhury | Published: 23:43, Mar 12,2021 | Updated: 18:23, Mar 14,2021

Essa Yousef Al Duhalian
Saudi Arabian ambassador Essa Yousef Al Duhalian on Thursday said that removing bureaucratic obstacles would ensure investment by potential companies from the kingdom.
‘Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has invited Saudi business groups to invest in Bangladesh. But when the potential investors engage at the lower levels here, they are facing barriers,’ he told New Age at his office, adding, ‘easing procedures and removing obstacles would be essential.’

Describing the procedures of the government and the official handling of files slothful, he said, ‘Officials are not aware about the magnitude of the Saudi investment.’
The delegations of Aramco, a multi-billion dollar Saudi company, came to Bangladesh three times but returned without making any headway, the ambassador said.

Several Saudi companies, including Aramco, Engineering Dimension, Al Fanar, Al Bawany, ACWA Power, Al Hokair Group, Al-Jomaih and Red Sea Gateway Terminal have proposed to invest US$15 billion in various sectors.

Ambassador Essa said that the relations between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia should not be about only deployment of manpower, rather it should be multidimensional, involving political, economic, progress in sports, defence security, et cetera.

There are also high potentials for two-way investments with scopes for Bangladeshi companies to go to Saudi Arabia, he said, adding that at present Saudi Arabia is a destination of the big companies of the world for investment.

‘We want Bangladeshi companies to partake in investment in the Saudi market and explore the opportunities in Saudi Arabia, which have introduced a public investment fund worth US$1.97 trillion by 2025.’

Mentioning the employment opportunities for Bangladeshi workers in Saudi development efforts, the ambassador said there have been some major changes in the pattern of employment in the kingdom.

‘We now need skilled people, including engineers and people with knowledge of technology, not ordinary workers…Make sure to train workers before sending them so that they can compete with workers from other countries,’ he said, adding that Saudi Arabia is ready to invest in training facilities for language and skills for potential workers.

Some 2.2 million Bangladeshi workers, including 1.6 million people recruited in the last five years, have been contributing in the development of Saudi Arabia and implementing Vision 2030 of the kingdom, said the envoy.

Some US$3.5 billion were remitted to Bangladesh through banking channels alone, and the amount would be US$9 billion, including the money sent through informal channels, he said.

When asked about the violations of rights and harassments of the workers, the ambassador said crime incidents are not uncommon in any country, ‘but the Saudi authorities deal things in a fair manner under laws and regulations, which are non-discriminatory for both Saudi nationals and foreigners.

A Saudi national was tried and beheaded recently for murdering a Bangladeshi worker.
Most of the crimes are generated by the brokers who make false promises of high salary and produce a wrong image about the jobs, he said, mentioning that ‘middlemen are not essential in the recruitment process…Saudi Arabia is against trafficking of people.’

About the position on Rohingya people living in the kingdom, the ambassador said that about 3,00,000 Rohingya minority people had been living in Saudi Arabia since 1948 and the country extended its political and humanitarian support to the members of the community, including the people living in camps in Bangladesh.

About 55,000 Rohingyas flew from Dhaka to Saudi Arabia over the years using Bangladeshi travel documents, he said, ‘now they have become illegal as they do not possess any valid travel document. They cannot do anything and Saudi government is not at fault.’

The Saudi government requested the Bangladesh embassy in Riyadh to ‘renew their passports’ as undocumented residents cannot be allowed to stay in Saud Arabia, said the ambassador.
Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia can explore potentials in other areas, including defence, tourism and education, he said.

Potential Bangladeshi tourists can seek e-visa through an online system and transit visas to explore sites in Saudi Arabia and students can avail scholarships to study there, he said.
The Saudi Arabian embassy in Dhaka issues 3,000 visas per day in various categories, he added.
Bilateral trade between the two countries was about US$2 billion in favour of Saudi Arabia in 2019, according to Bangladesh diplomats.

 

[Bilal9]

Bilateral trade between the two countries was about US$2 billion in favour of Saudi Arabia in 2019, according to Bangladesh diplomats.

This is all I needed to know.

When will Saudis start importing our luxury goods??

We should tell Fair Electronics and Walton to come up with special Real Diamond Bling-encrusted cellphones and refrigerators. Tacky Tacky to the MAX !!

Ki @Michael Corleone & @DalalErMaNodi - kinbo naki??

I think we should have special Halal-branded golden design (Jhili-mili karu-kaj) product line for Saudi market with gold accents...with "Made by Muslims" logo. Come to think of it, we can apply this to all products made in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Turkey and sold across the Muslim world. Then we can have Muslims boycott products from the West (esp. France).

I cannot believe how brilliant I am sometimes.

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

yo what happened to the $ 5 billion they promised to invest in BD for aerospace?

 

[Bilal9]

‘We now need skilled people, including engineers and people with knowledge of technology, not ordinary workers…Make sure to train workers before sending them so that they can compete with workers from other countries,’ he said, adding that Saudi Arabia is ready to invest in training facilities for language and skills for potential workers.

I think this may be Ummah lip-service of sorts. I don't like the guy's attitude. Like - "Take it or leave it".

Funny when two bit snot-nosed hindutvas like Tejasvi Surya are poking fun at Arabs/Saudis. And Saudis have no recourse except pander and employ this Hindutva idiots.

If an engineer is to go to blasted hot Saudi and survive the draconian social atmosphere there, socially being in a ghetto of Bangladeshis only, then they better pay more than the West.

But what I'm hearing is that Saudis don't pay even as well as Canada nowadays, Bangladeshi Engineers have a lot better places to go such as the UAE or Malaysia/S'pore. Maybe even Japan.

 

[bluesky]

I think this may be Ummah lip-service of sorts. I don't like the guy's attitude. Like - "Take it or leave it".

Several Saudi companies, including Aramco, Engineering Dimension, Al Fanar, Al Bawany, ACWA Power, Al Hokair Group, Al-Jomaih and Red Sea Gateway Terminal have proposed to invest US$15 billion in various sectors.

Maybe lip service or maybe not. But, this time the Ambassador is talking about specific Saudi investment companies. Aramco is an oil-based company that can build oil refineries or petrochemical projects in BD. These facories can supply their products not only to BD but also to India and ASEAN.

Engineering Dimension is a cement producer. It wants to build cement factories probably in Sylhet where Indian limestones are available. SA is full of limestones. Cement factories near the Chittagong Port can also be built on the basis of limestone import from SA. I do not know about the other companies listed above.

One thing we must note that every country complains about the BD non-system whereby a would-be investor has to do so many works and that with non-professional govt people that they are discouraged to invest.

Non-system means future corruption by the concerned BD govt people. After all, we are expert bribe-takers. It is another version of raping.

There must be a few investment lawyers in the country who can help the investors. However, the govt is busy talking about 100 EEZs which I have been hearing since time immemorial.

 

[Bilal9]

Maybe lip service or maybe not. But, this time the Ambassador is talking about specific Saudi investment companies. Aramco is an oil-based company that can build oil refineries or petrochemical projects in BD. These facories can supply their products not only to BD but also to India and ASEAN.

Engineering Dimension is a cement producer. It wants to build cement factories probably in Sylhet where Indian limestones are available. SA is full of limestones. Cement factories near the Chittagong Port can also be built on the basis of limestone import from SA. I do not know about the other companies listed above.

One thing we must note that every country complains about the BD non-system whereby a would-be investor has to do so many works and that with non-professional govt people that they are discouraged to invest.

Non-system means future corruption by the concerned BD govt people. After all, we are expert bribe-takers. It is another version of raping.

There must be a few investment lawyers in the country who can help the investors. However, the govt is busy talking about 100 EEZs which I have been hearing since time immemorial.

Yes the corruption and incompetence of Bangladesh govt. higher ups is a given - but Saudi investors also drag their feet - a lot.

They have been promising investments by the billions since two decades, but very few of those promises have materialized.

 

[fallstuff]

Maybe lip service or maybe not. But, this time the Ambassador is talking about specific Saudi investment companies. Aramco is an oil-based company that can build oil refineries or petrochemical projects in BD. These facories can supply their products not only to BD but also to India and ASEAN.

Engineering Dimension is a cement producer. It wants to build cement factories probably in Sylhet where Indian limestones are available. SA is full of limestones. Cement factories near the Chittagong Port can also be built on the basis of limestone import from SA. I do not know about the other companies listed above.

One thing we must note that every country complains about the BD non-system whereby a would-be investor has to do so many works and that with non-professional govt people that they are discouraged to invest.

Non-system means future corruption by the concerned BD govt people. After all, we are expert bribe-takers. It is another version of raping.

There must be a few investment lawyers in the country who can help the investors. However, the govt is busy talking about 100 EEZs which I have been hearing since time immemorial.

Saudis been saying about these wonderful investments for the last 6-7 years, nothing concrete ever came from their end. They never give any specifics. Ae the saying goes in America, they are always kicking the tires !

 

[bluesky]

Yes the corruption and incompetence of Bangladesh govt. higher ups is a given - but Saudi investors also drag their feet - a lot.

They have been promising investments by the billions since two decades, but very few of those promises have materialized.

Yes, SA is foot-dragging, but the GoB is also not that eager to listen to what complaints SA and other countries make. This time, the SA ambassador called a Press Conference to state his complaints. We cannot deny that everything moves very slow in BD because the system has not been built here to encourage the would-be investors.

Vietnam and even Cambodia have established a system whereby the FDI guy visits one window, takes the forms and papers, fills them up with the help of local agents, the office of this Reception window does all necessary works like getting multiple govt permissions from different authorities, the FDI guy comes back and collects the permissions and starts his journey.

You have to visit a few normal govt offices in BD to know about the attitudes of our snob govt people very low or high-ranked. You will not know who is who there and will think Peon is the Officer-in-charge.

No reception window to guide you to the responsible officer. No officer you will find because they are sipping tea in their personal chambers and talking on the phone with their friends. In developed countries, officers sit in the same large room with their staff and guide one of them to talk to a visitor. But, BD has chambers for them.

I have experienced hundreds of such problems. So, please go, visit and see the reality. EPZ or EEZ offices will not be any different. These offices maybe a little better than other local govt offices but the fundamental mindset of the officers remains the same because most officers are transferred from this office to that office. So, no change of heart.

Maybe a few private companies with full authorization by the govt would be a better and suitable option.

 

[SpaceMan18]

Yes, SA is foot-dragging, but the GoB is also not that eager to listen to what complaints SA and other countries make. This time, the SA ambassador called a Press Conference to state his complaints. We cannot deny that everything moves very slow in BD because the system has not been built here to encourage the would-be investors.

Vietnam and even Cambodia have established a system whereby the FDI guy visits one window, takes the forms and papers, fills them up with the help of local agents, the office of this Reception window does all works like getting multiple govt permissions, the FDI guy comes back and collects the permissions and starts his journey.

You have to visit a few normal govt offices in BD to know about the attitudes of our snob govt people very low or high-ranked. You will not know who is who there and will think Peon is the Officer-in-charge.

No reception window to guide you to the responsible officer. No officer you will find because they are sipping tea in their personal chambers and talking on the phone with their friends. In developed countries, officers sit in the same large room with their staff and guide one of them to talk to the visitor. But, BD has chambers for them.

I have experienced hundreds of such problems. So, please go, visit and see the reality. EPZ or EEZ offices will not be any different. These offices maybe a little better than other local govt offices but the fundamental mindset of the officers remains the same because most officers are transferred from this office to that office. So, no change of heart.

Maybe a few private companies with full authorization by the govt would be a better and suitable option.

True , Vietnam is at least taking development much seriously than Bangladesh will ever cause all Bangladesh knows how to do is talk while Vietnam walks.

Bangladesh keeps stooping low asf day by day , the country as time goes on not solving current issues end up facing more issues in the future.

Bangladesh feels more like an autonomous state of India rather than an independent nation.


If Bangladeshis higher ups let alone normal people don't change their mind sets then this country can throw out it's stupid dream of becoming a developed nation.

A country who's run by bunch of traitors and thieves with no industrialization will never become even close to developed.

 

[Bilal9]

Yes, SA is foot-dragging, but the GoB is also not that eager to listen to what complaints SA and other countries make. This time, the SA ambassador called a Press Conference to state his complaints. We cannot deny that everything moves very slow in BD because the system has not been built here to encourage the would-be investors.

Vietnam and even Cambodia have established a system whereby the FDI guy visits one window, takes the forms and papers, fills them up with the help of local agents, the office of this Reception window does all works like getting multiple govt permissions, the FDI guy comes back and collects the permissions and starts his journey.

You have to visit a few normal govt offices in BD to know about the attitudes of our snob govt people very low or high-ranked. You will not know who is who there and will think Peon is the Officer-in-charge.

No reception window to guide you to the responsible officer. No officer you will find because they are sipping tea in their personal chambers and talking on the phone with their friends. In developed countries, officers sit in the same large room with their staff and guide one of them to talk to the visitor. But, BD has chambers for them.

I have experienced hundreds of such problems. So, please go, visit and see the reality. EPZ or EEZ offices will not be any different. These offices maybe a little better than other local govt offices but the fundamental mindset of the officers remains the same because most officers are transferred from this office to that office. So, no change of heart.

Maybe a few private companies with full authorization by the govt would be a better and suitable option.

@bluesky bhai I know EPZ/BEZA folks as well as the multiple chamber of commerce people in Dhaka, some of them fellow businessfolks as members.

System is far from perfect but they do have a one stop shop situation and have had it for over a decade. Don't know how ideal it is but I hear that it does work for investors, slow or fast I do not know.

One Stop Service (OSS)

beza.oss.net.bd

 

[mb444]

Saudi dont have any money.....ignore and move on..

 

[bluesky]

System is far from perfect but they do have a one stop shop situation and have had it for over a decade. Don't know how ideal it is but I hear that it does work for investors, slow or fast I do not know.

The one-stop-shop may be on paper and not in reality. I have explained in a previous post how FDI papers are sorted in Vietnam and Cambodia which is this one-stop. I have read about it.

So, can you explain what our own one-stop system really means? And, why anyone from the govt does not come up explaining this to the Press now that the SA ambassador has chided the govt.

You see, there is no response. I have a feeling that the FDI guys must go through a proper channel (not EPZ offices) through Ministers, Rehana, Joy, or the govt Advisors. This may be the One-Stop provision BD style.

 

[Bilal9]

The one-stop-shop may be on paper and not in reality. I have explained in a previous post how FDI papers are sorted in Vietnam and Cambodia which is this one-stop. I have read about it.

So, can you explain what our own one-stop system really means? And, why anyone from the govt does not come up explaining this to the Press now that the SA ambassador has chided the govt.

You see, there is no response. I have a feeling that the FDI guys must go through a proper channel (not EPZ offices) through Ministers, Rehana, Joy, or the govt Advisors. This may be the One-Stop provision BD style.

@bluesky bhai, once you create an account in the one stop service portal, they assign you a "handler" and track completion of the various approvals ( 31 service approvals are tracked in the automated OSS portal). Same process like in Vietnam and Cambodia, but maybe a bit slower.

I believe folks can log in and track progress - however I don't know all details.

https://www.beza.gov.bd/investing-in-zones/one-stop-service/

 

[BATMAN]

Saudi dont have any money.....ignore and move on..

Which Saudi don't have money?

 

[mb444]

Which Saudi don't have money?

Any of them ... they are bankrupt..... aramco flotation failed and MBS is busy throwing money down the drain on his The Line project.

Saudies go around talking big on how they are going to invest on this and that in developing countries.... have they actually ever done it....i am unaware of any....

Soudi sovereign fund is shrinking daily...