As part of celebrations to mark out new name, we held a reception in Dhaka on Tuesday 24 May. Hosted by our CEO, Nick O’Donohoe, and the British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Robert Chatterton Dickson, the reception convened business leaders to celebrate our long-term partnership with Bangladesh, and to reaffirm our commitment to support the country in meeting key development priorities.
In Bangladesh, British International Investment will continue to build on our 74-year experience as an impact investor to support private-sector growth and leverage both its partnerships and deep-rooted knowledge of markets across South Asia to help boost economic opportunities and transform lives.
Bangladesh is an important market for us, where we have been investing since the eighties.
BII CEO Nick O’Donohoe, commented: “Bangladesh’s place in our history is a special one that goes back as far as the 1990s, when we supported Grameenphone. It was the first company to introduce digital mobile technology in Bangladesh. Our investment helped to increase cellular network coverage across the country, including rural areas, and this is just one example that demonstrates how our partnership with key businesses can help deliver productive and transformative impact in Bangladesh.”
Under our new name and five-year strategy, we will build on our mandate to help solve the bigest global development challenges by increasing its investments in climate businesses and climate-mitigating initiatives, ensuring that at least 30 per cent of its total new commitments will be in climate finance. We will also continue to strengthen our approach to gender and diversity finance with a new target of 25 per cent of all new investments to qualify under the 2X Challenge, an initiative that we co-founded, to empower women’s economic development.
Nick continued, “As we embark on this new chapter, our relationship with Bangladesh will continue to grow stronger into the future. As we build on our previous investments, we will seek opportunities to partner with businesses across a wider range of sectors to scale impact and bolster the country’s economic growth.”
Speaking during the reception British High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Robert Chatterton Dickson, said: “British International Investment is central to the UK’s strategy of supporting Bangladesh in securing the investment it will need to sustain economic growth through and beyond LDC graduation. BII’s investments will support Bangladesh’s development ambitions and complement our work to improve the country’s investment climate.”
We currently have a portfolio of over US $270 million in Bangladesh, supporting 11 businesses and two funds, across a variety of sectors including financial services, infrastructure, manufacturing and food processing. Key investment highlights include:
• Providing capital to Prime Bank to extend more foreign currency trade credit at longer tenors to local businesses, which is expected to generate up to US $60 million of additional trade every year across key economic sectors.
• Keeping trade flowing in Bangladesh by providing a US $30 million trade finance loan to City Bank which is supporting business growth and their ability to remain resilient during and beyond the pandemic.
• Increasing access to quality healthcare services by investing US $45 million in the integrated healthcare delivery platform Evercare, and supporting its expansion into Bangladesh.
• Promoting financial inclusion, increasing lending to SMEs and encouraging women economic empowerment through a US $30 million investment to BRAC Bank to expand its lending programme to export-led and other businesses.
Our office in Bangladesh, is headed by Country Director, Rehan Rashid.
British International Investment Media Contact:
Paschorina Mortty | pmortty@bii.co.uk
