The Japanese economic zone in Narayanganj's Araihazar will go into production in 2023, Ito Naoki, the country's ambassador to Bangladesh, said Thursday.

The envoy announced the plan while paying a courtesy call on FBCCI President Md Jashim Uddin in the afternoon.

"The interest of Japanese companies is growing, especially around the Araihazar economic zone. There is an opportunity to further develop the economy of Bangladesh by taking advantage," he said, calling for making the investment climate friendlier.

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"Restriction on overseas remittance from branches, limitation in loans for working capital, restriction on royalty remittance, overdue payment, delay of letter of credit (LC), collection of additional income taxes and VAT, renewal of bond licence, the wage gap between inside and outside Export Processing Zone (EPZ), are creating barriers to investments," he said.

Jasim Uddin assured the envoy that the FBCCI will work sincerely with the government to solve these problems.

"More than a hundred Japanese companies have been doing business in Bangladesh for many years. Also, Japan is one of the major partners of Bangladesh in development projects," he added.

"With the country's economic development, the lifestyle of Bangladesh's people has been upgraded. So, the size of the domestic market has also increased."

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"The popularity of Japanese products in this country is also relatively high. Japanese companies investing in Bangladesh are more likely to be profitable," the FBCCI president said.