Despite all their optimism about Bangladesh’s economic recovery, foreign participants at the Foreign Investor Summit 2025 in the capital on Wednesday warned against the violence in the country.
“We will support Bangladesh’s need for long-term equity capital, but we will not tolerate violence,” said Florida-based Contextual Investment LLC Managing Director Takao Hirose at a keynote in the summit organized by BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage.
“Foreign investors are ‘fast money’ – greedy, aggressive, yet fickle. At the first sign of instability, they will leave.”
In August last year, Takao Hirose flew to Dhaka from Florida to learn firsthand about the “Gen Z-led revolution.”
“I realised that it was the young generation driving this transformation in Bangladesh, demanding better governance, accountability, and transparency. For investors like us, this is extremely important,” Hirose said.
“Differences of opinion will exist, but they must be resolved peacefully, because the world’s investors are watching Bangladesh closely,” the investment professional added.
Another key speaker, Ruchir Desai, a Hong Kong-based Fund Manager at Asia Frontier Investments Limited, highlighted the challenges and opportunities in Bangladesh based on his decade-long experience in investing in Bangladesh.
Blaming the series of previous government’s controversial moves for the weakening of foreign investors’ confidence in Bangladesh, including arbitrary rate fixing, shutting down the stock market during the pandemic, and setting floor prices for stock prices, Desai stressed serious reforms.
He started investing in Bangladesh a decade ago, betting on the GDP growth.
“10–12 years ago, Bangladesh’s GDP growth was above 6%, and it had a large young population. However, since 2018–19, foreign investor confidence has been affected,” he said.
Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commissioners Mohammad Mohsin Chowdhury and Saifuddin Ahmed informed the investors about the regulatory reforms that should make investors’ lives easier in the country.
Desai also echoed Hirose’s concern about the underperformance of Bangladesh’s capital market and said, “There is a huge gap between what the market could contribute and what it has delivered. We need to address this gap to provide long-term financing for the economy.”
Hirose emphasized that Bangladesh’s economy had proven its resilience in short-term capital management, but now it needs long-term equity capital, which demands a strong framework, accountability, and good governance so that foreign investors feel confident.
Former BRAC Bank managing director Selim R F Hussain said that the banking sector is stabilizing, but reforms should continue.
Economist Masrur Reaz, chairman of Policy Exchange Bangladesh, in his keynote, highlighted Bangladesh’s consistent economic growth, which has been driven by the private sector, particularly in industries like textiles and garments.
“We need to strengthen the capital market to sustain this growth,” Reaz said.
Printing money and financing development is not a sustainable way. Bangladesh should opt for investors’ capital that needs a strong market ecosystem, said BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, a former commerce minister.
“Bangladesh has shown resilience through many challenges. Now, we must focus on creating a stable, predictable environment for investors,” he said.
The summit gathered over 100 Japanese investors and professionals representing finance, healthcare, tech, and engineering sectors.