RIYADH: A top Bangladeshi official has said Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh are set to sign a memorandum of understanding that will open up a lot of investment opportunities for both the countries.
The MoU seeks to attract Saudi companies who wish to invest in Bangladesh’s large infrastructure projects, said Salman F. Rahman, private industry and investment adviser to prime minister.
Talking to Arab News on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative conference held in Riyadh, the official expressed his country’s desire to boost trade and investment ties with Saudi Arabia.
“Bangladesh wanted to sign the deal for quite some time but it got delayed due to the pandemic,” Rahman said.
“In Bangladesh, we have the Public Private Partnership Authority, which is a government agency that looks after public-private projects, mainly infrastructure projects.”
Development projects in other sectors also come under the purview of the authority, he said.
Rahman also said that his country has signed several memorandums of understanding with other countries to increase cooperation and investment in different sectors.
Last year, a Saudi delegation visited Dhaka to take part in a two-day Joint Economic Council meeting during which some of the Kingdom’s top companies expressed interest in investing around $30 billion in a different economic sectors of Bangladesh.
Red Sea Gateway Terminal, a leading port developer of the Kingdom, expressed interest in developing Bangladesh’s main Chottogram port which deals with more than 80 percent of the country’s trade.
“The RSGT wants to make the investment in Public Private Partnership (PPP) form. To bring any investment in this mode, we need to have an agreement between the two governments,” Rafikul Islam Khan, joint secretary of the Bangladeshi shipping ministry told Arab News.
“As soon as the Saudi government will sign the PPP agreement with Bangladesh, we will move forward with RSGT’s investment proposals,” he said.
