Bangladesh is placed among Asia Pacific’s top 10 Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) hotspots, according to a study by the US-based global information company, IHS Inc.
The other Asia Pacific FDI hotspots are China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka.
Over the next decade, the Asia Pacific is forecast to be the fastest growing region of the global economy that offers the biggest potential gains for FDI, said IHS in a statement last week.
It added that amongst the other South Asian economies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are expected to show rapid growth over the next decade.
“Despite political turbulence, Bangladesh has made considerable economic progress over the past decade, with average annual GDP growth exceeding 6.5% per year since 2006. Bangladesh has emerged as an attractive location for FDI into low-cost textiles, clothing and footwear manufacturing because of its relatively low-wage costs compared to coastal China.”
“The Asia Pacific region will grow at an average annual rate of 4.5% per year, boosted by rapid growth in consumer spending in China, India and Southeast Asia,” said IHS Asia Pacific Chief Economist Rajiv Biswas.
Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand are also expected to join the ranks of Asian nations with a Gross Domestic Product exceeding US$1 trillion by 2030.
“This will help increase the geopolitical and economic importance of ASEAN and economic grouping in international diplomacy and the global dialogue on trade, investment and international standards-setting,” it said.
About ‘One Belt, One Road initiative’ taken by China, Biswas said: “For the Asia Pacific region, a key long-term growth driver will be China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative.”
This will be catalysed by new infrastructure financing for Asian emerging markets into sectors such as power generation and transmission, railroads, ports and highways from the recently launched Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Silk Road Fund, as well as a number of Chinese bilateral infrastructure financing commitments to a number of Asian countries, he said.
“The initiative will help accelerate the development of many inland Chinese provinces as well as accelerating the growth of Greater Mekong Sub-region as a new global manufacturing hub, and will benefit many countries in Southeast and Central Asia.”
Referring to Malaysia as the Asia’s next advanced economy, the report said Malaysia’s economy is forecast to achieve a per capita GDP of US$20,000 by 2025, with a total GDP exceeding US$1 trillion by 2030.
“Strategic growth industries in the services sector will include financial services, healthcare, education, commercial aviation, tourism and the IT-Business Process Outsourcing industry, as Malaysia becomes an increasingly important services, services-exporting economy for Southeast Asia.” said Biswas.
Indonesia’s GDP is forecast to grow at 5% per year over 2016-2020 supported by strong growth in consumer demand and infrastructure investment, he added.
The Philippines, he said, has shown rapid GDP growth averaging at around 6% per year over 2011-2015, with 5.8% GDP growth per year forecast over 2016-2018.
Meanwhile, the ASEAN frontier markets of Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are forecast to continue to grow rapidly.
The IHS study showed that Vietnam will grow at a pace of around 6.5% per year over the medium term, with a rapid growth in manufacturing exports of electronics and garments driving industrial development.
“The new EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the planned TPP deal will significantly boost Vietnam’s market access to the EU and the US for its manufacturing exports by reducing tariff barriers substantially,” he added.
Source: Dhakatribune
