Bangladesh interim government chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday called upon international businesses and investors to invest in Bangladesh, which he termed a land of crazy ideas, to change the world.
Inaugurating the four-day Bangladesh Investment Summit 2025 formally at a hotel in the Dhaka city, he said that if they wanted to make a business with a purpose, Bangladesh was a place for them.
鈥楤angladesh is a land of crazy ideas. People here are crazy about making things happen鈥f we want to make a business with a purpose, Bangladesh is the place,鈥� said Nobel laureate Professor Yunus at the inaugural session attended by industry leaders from home and abroad, diplomats and entrepreneurs.
Delegations from more than 50 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, China, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, have joined the four-day investment summit organised by the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority.
Addressing the event as the chief guest, Yunus narrated Bangladesh鈥檚 journey of over 50 years from its independence in 1971 when most of the people, he mentioned, were farmers in the country.
Yunus in a pent-up emotion paused for a while as he was narrating the 1974 famine when people died from hunger just within three years of the country鈥檚 birth.
鈥業 cannot bring my words鈥ne and a half million people died of hunger during the famine in 1974,鈥� he mentioned, saying that was the transition for Bangladesh and it changed through a long journey.
He said that giving public money to the poor was not the solution. Creating structure for them was the solution, he added.
Opposing the idea of wealth concentration, he said, 鈥楳aking money was happiness, but making other people happy is super happiness.鈥�
He said business could be the powerful mechanism by which one could change the world.
The chief adviser called upon the foreign investors to invest here not for Bangladesh, but for the world, for the region and beyond.
He presented stories of Grameen Bank and Grameen Telecom as his innovations through which rural women were empowered. Later encouraged by the success, Grameen America was established in the United States with the idea of providing microcredit there, he said.
BIDA executive chairman Chowdhury Ashik Mahmud Bin Harun presented the business and investment potential of Bangladesh during the plenary session moderated by chief adviser鈥檚 special envoy on international affairs Lutfey Siddiqi.
At the event, Kihak Sung, a Korean national and chairman of Youngone Corporation, one of the pioneers in Bangladesh鈥檚 readymade garment and textile sectors, was given honorary citizenship for his outstanding contribution to Bangladesh economy.
Yunus handed over the award to Sung at the formal inauguration of the four-day summit ending today.
Four local companies 鈥� Fabric Lagbe Ltd (innovation category), Walton and bkash (foreign investment), and Square Pharmaceuticals (local investment) were honoured with 鈥楨xcellence in Investment Award 2025鈥�. The chief adviser handed over crests to the recipients.
Oscar Garcia Maceiras, chief executive officer of Inditex from Spain, Baroness Rosie Winterton, the UK鈥檚 trade envoy to Bangladesh, and Apex Footwear Limited managing director Syed Nasim Manzur from Bangladesh spoke on the occasion.
Meanwhile, Handa Industries Limited, a china-based company renowned for the production of superior-quality knitted textiles, dyeing processes, and apparel on a global scale, expressed willingness to invest $150 million in Bangladesh.
To this end, Chowdhury Ashik, executive chairman of BIDA, and Heng Zeli, chairman (Handa (Dhaka) Textile Co, Ltd), signed a memorandum of understanding at the hotel in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Swedish clothing brand H&M Group, in partnership with Pran Group and the International Finance Corporation, also signed a memorandum of understanding to underscore a significant step towards producing renewable energy through solar power within Bangladesh鈥檚 vital garment industry.
ShopUp, Bangladesh鈥檚 largest business-to-business commerce platform, and Sary, a leading B2B marketplace and services platform in the Gulf, have merged to form SILQ Group.
The merger is backed by a $110 million funding led by Sanabil Investments, a wholly owned company by Saudi Arabia鈥檚 Public Investment Fund and Peter Thiel鈥檚 Valar Ventures.
Holcim Group executive committee member and region head of Asia, the Middle East and Africa, met with chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the state guest house Jamuna on the day.
The meeting addressed the country鈥檚 cement consumption trend, the environmental impact of the industry, and Holcim鈥檚 future plans for the Bangladeshi market, according to a release issued by the CA鈥檚 press wing.
Oscar Garcia Maceiras, chief executive officer of Spanish clothing retailer Inditex, also called on the chief adviser at the state guest house Jamuna on Wednesday.
During the meeting, they discussed matters relating to mutual interest, including the evolving landscape of global trade, the expansion of cultural ties between Bangladesh and Spain, and Inditex鈥檚 corporate social responsibility initiatives in Bangladesh, said another release.
On the second day of the summit on Tuesday, BIDA executive chairman Chowdhury Ashik said that the New Development Bank would give Bangladesh $1 billion in loan by the next one year.
On the same day, Bangladesh signed 鈥楢rtemis Accords鈥� as a 54th country with the United States鈥� National Aeronautics and Space Administration focused on non-military space exploration.
The Artemis Accords, established in October 2020, are a set of non-binding agreements designed to promote peaceful and cooperative civil exploration of outer space.