The Board of Investment has asked the military-backed interim government to take quick decisions on foreign direct investment proposals in the pipeline saying that the move could change the downward investment situation. The foreign investment proposals, pending with the BOI, include a 3.0 billion US dollar one from Indian business conglomerate Tata group, 2.5 billion dollar from the UK-based Asia Energy, 1.6 billion dollar from the US-based Vulcan Energy, 1.5 billion dollar from South Korean Luxon Global and around 1.0 billion dollar from Saudi Arabian Kingdom group.

Bangladesh received 700 million dollar FDI in 2006 against the target of 1 billion dollar, according to BOI statistics. India and China got 8 billion dollar and 63 billion dollar respectively for the same year. FDI grew 84 per cent to 845.3 million dollar in 2005 from 460.4 million dollar in 2004, according to BOI. The BOI chief blamed the country’s political crisis for the poor investment inflow in 2006, but said reforms being put in place by the government had brightened prospects.

According to BOI, some of the investment proposals are pending with the BOI for years without any decision. The BOI chief expects the government would review the FDI proposals, especially the big ones, for the sake of the country’s economic development. But the Board, officials said, could not make further steps relating to the investment proposals due to absence of necessary guidelines and lack of clear instructions from the higher authorities during the successive regimes.

Amidst failure in attracting the targeted FDI in 2006, the BOI has set FDI targets of 1.2 billion dollar for 2008, 1.4 billion dollar for 2009 and 1.6 billion dollar for 2010. The target for 2007 is 1.2 billion dollar. An FDI target of 2.6 billion dollar has been set for 2015, when the poverty rate is likely be halved.