Commonwealth Trade & Investment Forum in Bangladesh: Minister Mbayu heading delegation in search of opportunities.

The forum went underway in Dhaka, Bangladesh yesterday. The member of government had touched down on Bangladeshi soil to a warm reception on September 11. 

A team of Cameroonian students studying at the Islamic University of Technology in Bangladesh, welcomed the minister to the country.

Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, opened the forum yesterday at her country’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre, BICC.  Hasina expressed hope that the trade and investment forum will birth new partnerships for shared growth and development.

Over 400 delegates, among them Heads of State and Governments, business leaders among other experts from member states are attending the meeting.

With the goal of the trade and investment forum hinged on crating fresh spaces for investment, innovation with a keen interest on sustainable and inclusive development, some Cameroonian startups are also reported to be making use of the meeting. The forum will feature 12 sessions.

The Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, CWEIC, is at the engine of the two-day forum. 

It is doing so in tandem with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, ZI Foundation and Bangladesh Investment Development Authority, BIDA. The investment forum ends today.

Speaking at a presser Sunday in prelude to the event, Salman Rahman, Private Industry and Investment Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, had said the gathering is the biggest opportunity to boost trade and investment between Bangladesh and Commonwealth countries. "Bangladesh can also present its investment potential to them," the official said.

Shahriar Alam, Bangladesh’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, for his part, said at the presser that Commonwealth member states must group to address weaknesses of underdeveloped, landlocked and other countries that have peculiar challenges.

Lord Hugo George William Swir, of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, who is Deputy Chairman of the CWEIC, said the ongoing forum is a window for companies from participating countries to explore.

The 56 member countries of the Commonwealth, according to the official, “have untapped potential and limitless possibilities”.

The Executive Chairman of BIDA, Lokman Hossain Mia, is quoted as having catalogued the 2.5 billion people who make up the Commonwealth as an extensive network that must be made use of to drive growth, sustainable and inclusive development. 

Commonwealth member states are assessed as having a combined Gross Domestic Product, GDP, of over $13 trillion. The figure is projected to hit $19.5 trillion by 2027.