On the picture Ambassador Belal with wife, Dutch entrepreneurs and seminar’s moderator.
The road to the Asian Century shall traverse Bangladesh.
By Roy Lie A Tjam.
Within the framework of the Dutch-Bangla Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in conjunction with the Embassy of Bangladesh in the Netherlands, an agribusiness seminar was held at the Hilton Hotel Den Haag on 7 September. A trade delegation of twelve top entrepreneurs from Bangladesh visited The Hague, as part of a 5-day tour to the BENELUX countries.
The group visited The Hague for a total of 48 hours. The focus was on strategies to incentivise investors to come to Bangladesh. The Netherlands was chosen for the visit due to its long-standing expertise in agriculture, dairy products and for being a delta country as Bangladesh is. The delegation included Hassan Khaled, Shahriar Taha, Aminur Rashid, Biswajit Roy, Mohammad Monwar Hossain, Mohammed Khorshed Khastagir, Build Asia, Anwar Shawkat and others.
For a photo-album on the Bangladesh agribusiness seminar, please open the following link: https://www.flickr.com/
In his welcome remarks, H.E. Sheikh Mohammed Belal, Ambassador of Bangladesh to the Netherlands, urged Dutch investors to come and invest in the forthcoming Asian Century. Bangladesh, he said, is the gateway to the Asian Century. The fact that Bangladesh is a duty free and quorum free country makes it a highly attractive investment and business destination.
During the two session seminar, Mr. Shariar Taha gave a presentation in which he introduced Bangladesh and provided attendees with an overview of the country’s investment opportunities and policies. There was also time for discussion, questions and personal meetings. The DBCCI president Mr. Hasan Khaled disclosed that a single country trade show will be taking place in the Netherlands in April 2016. Subsequently, Mr. Mohammad Monwar Hossain (CerebralLink Ltd) and Mr. Aminur Rashid (Edison) made their own contributions, promoting the potential of agro- and food processing, as well as the leather and footwear sectors in Bangladesh. Ms. Annette Weijman (MVO) represented the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Members of the delegation later had the opportunity for one-to-one meetings with interested Dutch counterparts.
Feedback from the visitors after the seminar was extremely positive. Attendees were very impressed with the opportunities Bangladesh has to offer, and returned home with an improved understanding of the country. Such events provide a welcome opportunity for potential international investors and partners to find out more about the country, free of negative cliché and with a positive vision for the future.
As a conclusion, Ambassador Belal hosted a reception and dinner at his residence (Bangladesh House) for the visiting DBCCI delegation and invitees. A successful promotion day indeed.
