New York: The Bangladeshi business delegates Wednesday were overwhelmed to exchange their views with the top level businessmen in USA at a meeting jointly hosted by US Pan Asian Chamber of Commerce and US Bangladesh Partners, as well as Bangladesh Embassy to the USA and Bangladesh Consulate in New York.

A good number of Bangladeshi top level businessmen are now visiting New York as a part of delegation of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to join the 68th session of United Nations General Assembly.

The business delegations are holding one after another view exchange meetings with different groups of trade and businesses. The Wednesday`s meeting was one of the major.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni joined the meeting as chief guest. She, in her speech, stated Bangladesh as an investment friendly county and invited the top businessmen in USA to choose Bangladesh for their investments.

"Bangladesh have a starling economic performance, it is one of the few developing country of strong economic promise, so come and do your investment," Dipu Moni urged the top businessmen of USA.

Stating the 160 million of population as a human resource she said, considering this population you can open new windows of opportunities in Bangladesh.

Mentioning about the recent Rana Plaza collapse foreign minister said, the government is now seriously attending the safety issues in RMG sector, workers` rights are being ensured.

"So it is as success and we certainly hope and expect that he GSP will be reinstate sooner," she stressed.

Our government has set a goal to make Bangladesh a middle income country 2021, the 50th anniversery of our independence, And by investing in our country you could be our partners to fulfilling this dream, she added.

Savio Chan, President, US Pan American Chamber of Commerce  and Aziz Ahmad, Vice Chair, US Pan American Chamber of Commerce and Chairman, US Bangladesh partners jointly moderated the meeting.

Richard Raysman of Holland & Knight Partner gave the elcoming note.

In his opening speech Savio Chan welcomed the Bangladeshi businessmen and said, I am very excited and happy to discuss over business opportunity between Bangladesh and United States.

Terming the meeting a high impact one Aziz Ahmad said, all big businessmen from both Bangladesh and USA are in this room and we believe an effective tie between the groups will be established through this.
He invited the US entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh and said, it is a beautiful environment in Bangladesh to invest. He particularly mentioned the telecommunication, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals as potential sectors and urged the USA investors to visit Bangladesh to find out the opportunity. As a chairman of US-Bangladesh partners he also ensured the investors to extend cooperation to connect the dots.

“It’s no wonder Goldman Sachs called Bangladesh one of the best emerging economies for trade and investment,” Aziz also added.

Ellicott Dredges, a big investor in Bangladesh in dredging sector, UTC Associates, an IT software engineering company  and Holland & Knight Partner, a reputed law firm jointly sponsored the meeting.

In his remarks Paul Quinn of Ellicott Dredges said, we had great success working in Bangladesh. We had a very good positive experience working with the government of Bangladesh.  

Praising Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina he said, dredging the water ways is a very far sighted move by the Prime Minister. Mentioning Bangladesh as a natural field for ship building Qinn also invited other businessmen in USA to invest in Bangladesh.  

Head of Bangladeshi business delegation and FBBCCI president Akram Uddin Ahmed said, we are very happy to know that you have shown keen interest to investing in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a vibrant economy with 7 percent growth rate, the total economy is 133 billion USD and I can assure investors from USA that they will get all sorts of cooperation and assistance from FBCCI for doing business in Bangladesh.

Mentioning Bangladesh economy powerful Bangladesh ambassador in USA Ekramul Quader urged the USA investors to come in big way to Bangladesh.

"Political and economic relationships are linked and the political relationship between USA and Bangladesh is now the best of all time. It is now time to enhance economic relationship. So we urge you to come to Bangladesh and explore opportunity to invest," said Akramul Quader.

Former congressman George Hochbrueckner, Consul General of Bangladesh Consulate in New York Monirul Islam, among others, were present on the occasion.

Ellicot Dredgers, Morgan Stanley, USPS, Bank of America, Holland & Knight Partner, HSBC, vision Quest Lighting, V2 Technology, General Electric among others were the companies attended the discussion.

BDST 1238 HRS, SEPT 27, 2013
MMK