Being labeled as " Emerging Economy of Asia" is our "the most significant achievement" since 1990. In last two years Bangladesh has became one of the most lucrative destination for capital among all the developing countries. Recently, we celebrated highest level of Direct Foreign Investment. In the year 2015 we witnessed a significant surge in FDI- over two billion US dollar. Thanks to our hardworking women in the textile and agriculture sector.

Foreign Investment is life line for any economy, specially for an emerging economy like ours it is the key. Key in order to- finance the massive infrastructure projects we are undertaking ( Projects like Padma Rail Bridge, Asian Highway, roads between different parts of the country, New ports, metro-rail project, education and training, technological advancement, human resource development ), strengthen our industries, create new jobs, maintain productivity growth, maintain export-import balance, keep a healthy foreign currency reserve, and maintain the high GDP growth.

What makes Bangladesh an attractive destination:

Despite unstable political event we were able to maintain a high 6.5% GDP growth for nearly a decade. It allowed us to invest in people. Bangladesh is now considered as a model of women empowerment and food security among developing nations.
In the past one and half year- our political situation is comparatively calm which made the investors feel secure about their investment. At the same time business confidence also hit the highest level and because of the cheap labor cost our businesses are capable of delivering a 15% return of invested capital which is very high comparing to any countries.

We are not alone, we have company:

We are not the only nation to offer such investment friendly terms. There are countries in our region which are competing with us to attract foreign investment. It is predicted by the economists that Asia-Pacific region would become the fastest growing economic zone of the next decade and the business potential of these countries are enormous. Sri-Lanka, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia as well as China, Malaysia and India are just a few among our competitors.

How recent rise of terrorism impact the investors:

An investor's decision relies on number of factors which includes long term prospects, experience, political stability, security, availability of market, and even the social aspects of the target destination.
If the threats from terrorism continue to grow in Bangladesh we clearly can not expect to maintain the current level of foreign investment. A businessman would definitely have more concerns about his investment in a country ravaged by terrorism than a country comparatively calm. We are living in a time of integrated world economy and there are many other nations within our region offering same business opportunities. Due to recent events, it would be a fools dream not to expect a large shift of investment from Bangladesh to other countries of the region.

When a business takes an investment initiative they survey and analyse the market. The situation has become so worse that the OECD nations has issued travel warning for their citizens to travel Bangladesh. Businesses are finding it very difficult to send an executive to analyse the market or even to sign a business deal since the travel warnings were issued.

The travel warning actually put more pressure on the local businesses. Now all our businesses have to send their executives abroad to sign deals or to attend meetings. Its a massive extra cost for them. The big business houses may be able to overcome that short of expenses but the medium or export oriented small businesses could collapse because of such burden.

15% was considered as the estimated return of capital in Bangladesh. that won't be the case anymore. If such terrorism continues to increase, the investors would definitely change the process of determining capital return as the risk would be considered much higher than before. And If we fail to control the terrorists and it reaches a catastrophic level it would certainly decrees the rate of return that can also influence the investors to move the capital to other part of the region.

In economic world of so many potentials, security is the largest factor for the investors to determine where to invest. An investor will never feel confident investing in a place unsafe. He will find another place. Low business confidence is damaging for any economy. It will have a catastrophic impact on GDP, FDI, employment and foreign remittance.

No one must believe in government's lies that everything is under control if it is not followed by action. We have already seen the response from our development partners like The Japan International Cooperation Agency already.The government can make the other governments to make a favorable statement but empty words does not bring back the confidence of the private investors. It requires action. No investor will consider investing in a harmful market. They carefully analyse the market before pouring money and any anxiety will simply drive them to another more favorable market.

The strength of our economy comes from the textile, agriculture footwear and manpower sector. The textile is our biggest export industry which relies on hard work of our women. Imagine a Bangladesh where women are scared to leave home or business owners are frightened to employ women. What would happen to our economy?

Imagine, foreign nations are frightened of issuing visa to Bangladeshi workers because of the increased threat of terrorism? Can we survive without the remittance flow?
Imagine the loss of morale of the society and social chaos because of massive job loss?

To support the economy our government has to rely on foreign lenders instead of investors. Imagine organisations like IMF lecturing us on policy. Our sovereignty would just appear in papers.
Imagine we living on the handouts of the charities. Imagine once proud Bengali nation living in camps like Syria.

Imagine, the most significant achievement of our's- the label "Emerging Economy" disappeared and with the economy our society has also collapsed.
Can we afford not to react to terrorism with an Iron-Fist? Can we tolerate the government's election calculation when the nation is on the verge of collapse?