Malaysian investment

The envoy literally makes us sit up and take note of his cautionary signal, if you like, that Dhaka's continuing indecision might impel his government to look for countries like China, Vietnam, Pakistan and India as the likely investment destinations. We have had $6 billion worth of investment from Malaysia since 1999.

The proposals in question are for 210km multilane Dhaka-Chittagong highway, two power generation projects and Aktel customer service improvement related project. These are a string of impressive people-oriented infrastructure building initiatives. For all we know, Malaysia having gone high-tech industrialisation-wise, is keen on relocating its SMEs in Bangladesh. This is corroborated by the envoy's emphatic statement that Bangladesh is 'on the radar screen of Malaysian investors and traders'.

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True, we should not be rushed to accepting or rejecting any investment offer just because it is big and from a mighty economy but at the same time we cannot afford to lose a good proposal by procrastinating. Proposals must be judged by their merit, and against the criterion of what is in the best interest of the country and the people.

There is no denying the fact that the process of evaluation and approval of investment projects in our context has been multi-layered, cumbersome and serpentine and often riddled with prospects of corruption and underhand dealings for benefiting the powerful to top it off.

The lack of quick decision on the Malaysian proposals is out of sync with the exuberant invitations we often hold out to prospective foreign investors. Besides, we must not forget that investment has a dynamism of its own and, unless grabbed in a timely manner, has a way of eluding our grip.