Staff Reporter: Bangladesh has received investment proposals of $1.25 billion in the first half of this year - from January to June.

This information was revealed yesterday at the 5th meeting of the Investment Coordination Committee held at the Chief Adviser's Office (CAO) with Chief Adviser's Special Envoy on International Affairs Lutfey Siddiqi in the chair.

The meeting was informed that the total investment proposals in the first six months of this year included proposals for $465 million foreign investment. Besides, the proposals also included $700 million local investment and $85 million joint venture investment.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Ahsan H Mansur and National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Md Abdur Rahman Khan also attended the meeting. Among the foreign investments, Chinese firms submitted the largest proposals, totaling nearly $330 million.

Representatives of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) informed the meeting that significant investment proposals also came from different institutions based in Singapore, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

The BIDA representative further revealed that of the total $1.25 billion proposals, $231 million reached the final stage so far. The conversion rate of the proposals currently stands at about 18 percent in the final stage from primary stage while the global average rate is 15-20 percent.

The meeting also discussed the issue of container congestion at Chattogram Port, where about 6,500 containers have been lying idle for a long time.

In the meeting, Chattogram Port Authority reported that during the current government's tenure, steps have been taken to ease congestion, including putting up 1,000 containers for auction in the past two months.

Chief Adviser's Special Envoy on International Affairs Lutfey Siddiqi instructed the concerned authorities to make the auction process more efficient.

The port officials informed that another 500 containers will be put up for auction next month, with ongoing efforts to hand over goods from completed auctions.

The meeting also discussed the progress on the launch of the Bangladesh Business Portal (BBP) while the officials concerned informed that the work is in the final stage. This integrated online platform has been designed to combine the services of BIDA, BEZA, BEPZA, and BSCIC.

Officials also informed that a soft launch is expected in the first week of the next month (September) while the platform could go on full operation from the end of the month.

Senior officials from the Ministry of Commerce, Chattogram Port Authority, Chattogram Customs House, and various public and private organizations were present at the meeting.