He made the call while addressing the inaugural session of the two-day 33rd Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) at a city hotel.
The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) and CACCI jointly organised the conference.
Salman said Bangladesh is now a great destination for foreign and domestic investments. “The current government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is a business and trade-friendly one.”
“The government has been working towards inclusive development of the nation by hosting various officials and diplomats for possible investments along with incentivisation to the MSME’s and entrepreneurs,” he added.
Salman emphasised on different development activities of the government, including the advantages of setting up industries and making investments in different regions.
The government has undertaken a plan to establish 100 economic zones around the country, he said.
After the inaugural programme, Salman also presented a keynote speech at the ‘Discover Business Opportunities through CACCI’ session.
Selected successful entrepreneurs from different CACCI member countries took part in the session. They presented keynote speeches on current economic conditions in their respective countries and opportunities for trade and investments and shared their success stories, challenges and how they overcame.
FBCCI President Sheikh F Fahim emphasised on Bangladesh’s stable macro-economic growth trajectory and its development in the past decade in addition to highlighting FBCCI’s role as the umbrella trade organisation of Bangladesh reflecting Bangladesh’s private sector voice in the international space complementing our govt.’s initiative.
“FBCCI has been addressing some critical issues of our transitional economy, including knowledge transfer for 3IR to 4IR, AI, regulatory planning, SDG goals, industry-academia gap assessment, reskilling, technology transfer, among others,” he added.
CACCI President Samir Modi said the Asia-Pacific region is now world’s largest and fastest developing economy spearheading growth in trade, investments, new technologies, innovation and reforms.
“The recent economic trends in Asia and the Pacific lend optimism to perceptions that the region will maintain its preponderant influence as the engine of the global economy in future also. While Asia is at the forefront of the global economy today, it confronts some fundamental challenges that may require a shift in the region’s growth model,” he said.
Samir added that preserving international and regional collaboration also remains an important overarching objective for strong economic integration of the region.
However, the conference started to bring together more than 300 business delegates including leading National Chambers of Commerce, Business leaders and Policy makers from 27 countries in the Asia Pacific region and feature eminent speakers ranging from leading economists, business practitioners as well as regional policymakers to assess key challenges and issues.
Fifty-five participants from 15 CACCI member countries, including Australia, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, Nepal, Panama, the Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the UK and the USA, are taking part in the conference.