New foreign investment fell by more than half in the first half of the year: Invest Bangladesh presents project list in Doha, Ashik Chowdhury proposes risk-sharing
New foreign investment in the country is falling. In the first six months of this year, new capital arriving from abroad dropped to less than half of the same period last year. Against this backdrop, the government's investment agency Invest Bangladesh has presented a list of major infrastructure and energy projects to international investors in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
The projects include solar power plants on government land, LNG infrastructure, ports, the proposed Chattogram free trade zone and the Matarbari Green Dockyard.
The World Investment Forum 2026, organised by the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD, is under way in Doha. On Monday (26 October) a session titled 'Invest in Bangladesh: The Billion-Dollar Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight' was held on the forum's centre stage. At the 20-minute session, which began at 11:30am Doha time, the projects were presented by Nahian Rahman Rochi, the member in charge of Invest Bangladesh's investment development division.
Around 100 representatives of institutional investors, international financiers and investment promotion agencies from various countries attended the session. However, Invest Bangladesh's press release contains no information about any final agreement or investment commitment for any project.
According to Bangladesh Bank figures, net foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country in January-June this year was $794.2 million. In the same period last year it was $1,104.2 million. In other words, net FDI fell by 28 percent.
The big fall was in new investment, that is, new capital from abroad. In the first six months, new capital amounted to $155.7 million, about 55 percent less than the $345.2 million of the same period last year.
About 76 percent of the total net FDI received in this period came from reinvestment of profits by foreign companies already operating in the country. In other words, existing investors, rather than new ones, are now the mainstay.
Last year the picture was different. According to UNCTAD's World Investment Report 2026, FDI into Bangladesh in 2025 rose 45 percent from the previous year to $1.78 billion. Even so, in South Asia it is small compared with India's $38.9 billion. It is also somewhat less than Pakistan's.
Economists see several reasons behind the fall in new investment. International rating agencies have downgraded Bangladesh's credit rating. S&P and Fitch kept the rating at 'B+' but gave a 'negative' outlook. Non-performing loans in the banking sector reached 33.2 percent of total loans last June. They believe these send negative signals to foreign investors.
It was this question of risk that Invest Bangladesh chairman Ashik Chowdhury raised at the forum. At a ministerial roundtable on investment, he proposed that arrangements for sharing investment risk be considered on the model of investment guarantees and export credit. He called for greater importance to be given to the development impact of investment in emerging economies. He also requested UNCTAD to highlight Bangladesh's successful investment examples more.
In the presentation, Nahian Rahman Rochi spoke of three advantages of Bangladesh: a young workforce, comparatively low operating costs and a large domestic market. Beyond the conventional garment sector, the potential of electronics, advanced technology-based textiles and medical equipment was also highlighted.
Nahian Rahman said investors had shown interest in learning how they can participate in the projects. Opportunities for working together on economic zones, ports and dry docks were also discussed. He believes such investment can meet the country's domestic demand and also play a role in regional trade. He also said discussions with interested investors will continue.
During the forum, Invest Bangladesh also held bilateral meetings with prospective investors. The agency also organised a roundtable discussion to increase coordination among investment promotion agencies.
A large part of the projects presented is in the energy sector. To meet the country's gas and electricity shortage, the government is having to rely increasingly on imported LNG. Last Saturday too, the government purchase committee recommended a proposal to buy six cargoes of LNG from the spot market and Qatar.
On the other hand, only about 5.5 percent of the country's total installed power capacity comes from renewable sources. On Sunday, the first day of the forum, Ashik Chowdhury spoke of plans for solar power at a ministerial panel. He said work is progressing together on identifying investors for renewable energy projects, preparing land, policy coordination and building a public-private partnership (PPP) framework. The possibility of applying the model of the Sonagazi solar power project on unused government land in other areas also came up in discussion.
Invest Bangladesh's pipeline now has 15 major solar power projects. There is a plan to advance them through PPP over the next few months. However, the total investment, generation capacity or implementation timeline of the projects has not been disclosed.
