This land belongs to the GoB, and not the GoJ. If Japan builds a power plant there it will be operated by BD beause the GoJ is not the owner. It never operates even its own power plants.
I am talking about investment by the Japanese private companies. Their (almost) last station is Singapore though a very few companies have built shops in India. Japan is gradually withdrawing from a hostile China, but will invest in SE Asian countries like Vietnam and others, even in Burma where peoples' physical features look similar, people are friendly,
food is good, liquor and bars are available.
So, after Japan gets elected to the UN it will be business as usual. BD is falling into a Japanese money trap. Simply speaking BD is just unfit for a large scale Japanese private sector investment.
Vietnam also has the advantage of being a TPP nation in the distant future...
Nobody going to throw away 10,000 acres of land including Japs in Bangladesh which are as good as gold. Lots of money can be made in BD and war crimes trial is already in gutter.
Surely the Jamaati leaders would have been hanged by now if that was the case or set free for that instance. IHS Jane says the Shibir is the third most armed non state group in the world (the Al-Quaida in Iraq came in fourth), not to mention the deeply polarized society. I agree with your assessment on the 10,000 acres land of being highly valuable, but investors would rather wait to see how it all pans out.
June 12, 2014 1:00 pm JST
A difficult road ahead for domestic reconciliation
SATOSHI IWAKI, Nikkei staff writer
DHAKA -- Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's sincerity is obvious.
During her May 22 interview with The Nikkei at the prime minister's official residence, aides had prepared a list of anticipated questions and appropriate answers. She left the paper on her desk and spoke freely in the 50-minute Q&A session.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, left, meets her Japanese counterpart Shuinzo Abe in Tokyo on May 26.
Hasina's strong desire to turn Bangladesh into a midtier economy was clear. Bangladesh today is one of the world's poorest countries. Its 156 million people in 2013 lived on a per-capita gross domestic product of $904.
The country is a leading garment maker, thanks to cheap labor. Workers there cost a sixth to a quarter of their counterparts in China and India. Some 4 million work in the nation's 5,600 garment factories.
Major global brands such as Zara and Gap have production bases there. After quadrupling exports over the past decade, Bangladesh now ranks as the world's second-biggest clothing exporter after China.
But last year's Rana Plaza disaster prompted a rethink among foreign companies about their strategies in the country. Critics claimed conditions at foreign factories were close to slave labor, driving the Bangladesh government in November to raise the minimum wage for garment workers by roughly 80%.
Japan is happy to help Hasina. At a May 26 summit between her and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the two agreed to develop a comprehensive partnership that includes national security cooperation. Hasina also won economic assistance worth up to 600 billion yen ($5.85 billion) for the next four to five years.
Bangladesh and Japan are competing for a nonpermanent member seat at the U.N. Security Council. But Hasina indicated to Japan that Bangladesh would withdraw from the race, saying she would confirm the news with Abe when he visits.
A major issue standing in the way for the country's economic development is political instability. Khaleda Zia, Hasina's main rival and the leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has fought Hasina since the 1990s. Both have served as the prime minister twice.
Their rivalry intensifies with each national election. Zia's BNP boycotted a national election earlier this year, casting doubt on its legitimacy. The U.S. and Europe declined to send election monitors.
When asked if the current government can claim legitimacy, Hasina brushed off criticism. There was no hint of a willingness to mend the divide and bring the country together. But if Bangladesh is to become a semideveloped country, its leaders must understand there is more to democracy than elections.
EVEN THE INFLUENCIAL JAPANESE MAGAZINE, THE NIKKEI TALKS ABOUT THE DEEPLY DIVIDED NATION, THE CONTROVERSIAL POLLS AND THE WAR CRIMES TRIAL, NOT TO MENTION HASINA BRIBING ABE TO COME TO BANGLADESH