Bangladesh presents a rare opportunity for investment. It belongs to largely a homogeneous society with no major internal or external tensions and a population with great resilience. Bangladesh is potentially a significant market, especially with potential access to South Asia. Currently the FDI stock of the country is growing very rapidly because of large population with more than 160 million and impressive economic growth over recent years that is matched by liberal investment policies with the introduction of a one-stop service (OSS) for investor and a young, hardworking, low-cost and trainable workforce. Initiatives to establish 100 Special Economic Zones (SEZs) by 2030 also gave FDI a great boost, with investors already having started production in some of the zones. According to the recent data of Bangladesh Bank, as on end of March 2019 the country is a home of USD 18.20 billion FDI where USA tops the list with USD 3.65 billion followed by UK and China with USD 2.19 billion and USD 1.84 billion. Malaysia is the 9th largest investor for Bangladesh with a stock of USD 815.99 million where telecommunication sector dominates the FDI inflow followed by textile and wearing sector, and construction sector.
Since the Malaysian Government is pushing the country towards a ‘knowledge-based economy’ from ‘manufacturing-based economy’, a large number of labor-intensive manufacturing industries have been relocating to Bangladesh because of labor shortage and high wages.