The Government of Bangladesh has introduced a comprehensive policy package aimed at stimulating investment and strengthening national savings. The move is part of a broader strategy to ensure a high-growth, sustainable, and self-reliant economy, particularly as the country transitions beyond its LDC status, reports UNB.
According to the Finance Ministry’s latest Medium Term Macroeconomic Policy Statement, investment remains a crucial engine for economic growth, but recent years have seen a notable slowdown in both private and public capital formation. To counter this, the government is pursuing a range of coordinated reforms across sectors that are designed to create a more favorable investment environment over the medium term.
The policy measures focus on expanding infrastructure, improving the ease of doing business, streamlining regulatory frameworks, enhancing digital governance, and attracting greater foreign direct investment. Simultaneously, initiatives to promote public-private partnerships and broaden financing access for SMEs and startups are being prioritized as core components of the government’s investment strategy.
Public investment through the Annual Development Programme (ADP) is expected to increase gradually, reaching 6.68 percent of GDP in the 2025–26 fiscal year, up from 6.50 percent in 2023–24, and is projected to rise further to 6.77 percent by FY28. The ADP is strategically aligned to address infrastructure bottlenecks, reinforce social safety nets, and support private sector growth.
In April, the Bangladesh Investment Summit 2025 in Dhaka delivered fresh momentum to the reform agenda. The event generated over 150 business-to-government meetings and unveiled a Tk 900 crore Innovation Fund. It also secured new foreign investment commitments in sectors such as renewable energy, digital technology, textiles, agro-processing, and healthcare. The summit reinforced Bangladesh’s image as a reform-driven, forward-looking economy.
Alongside investment, the government is placing strong emphasis on strengthening national savings. The aim is to reduce dependency on external financing and create a more resilient domestic funding base. Gross national savings, which dipped slightly to 28.42 percent of GDP in FY24, are projected to rise to 31.66 percent by FY28. The forecast reflects expectations of stabilizing inflation, rising remittance inflows, and improved saving behavior among both households and businesses.
Gross domestic savings also showed signs of recovery, with a projected increase from 23.96 percent in FY24 to 26.59 percent in FY28. This improvement signals cautious optimism about the country’s macroeconomic stability, driven by restrained consumption, healthy remittance trends, and moderate inflationary pressures. However, officials acknowledge that converting increased savings into productive investment remains a challenge.
Despite the rise in savings, the investment-to-GDP ratio has not seen a corresponding jump, highlighting a persistent gap between available capital and its deployment. Finance Ministry officials note that closing this gap will require greater financial inclusion, banking sector reforms, and targeted improvements in the investment climate. A more efficient allocation of capital is essential to ensure that savings support long-term national development objectives.
Moreover, channeling these savings into priority sectors such as infrastructure and manufacturing is critical to unlocking sustainable growth. The government believes that these structural measures will also reduce fiscal vulnerabilities by lowering reliance on external borrowing and enhancing domestic economic capacity.
Bd-pratidin English/ Jisan
