Sahara Launches Subsidies in BD Summary Sahara group of India is going to invest a lam sum amount in the housing sector

of Bangladesh. In the last Friday 25th of May this decision was made by Suvroto Roy, the chairman of Sahara group. For this connection a newly subsidiary compan y was launched by Sahara group and also memorandum of understanding (MoU) was si gned with Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK). At the very initial step of the investment $120 million dollar Sahara India is willing to spend for a township housing scheme near the capital Dhaka. A 0.1 million acre land was demanded from the PM of Bangladesh. The project will cover most developed technological facil ities and will mainly concentrate to the low and middle income earning people. A ll the raw materials will mostly be collected from locals. Apart from the housin g sector Sahara also fells interest to invest in the country s IT, power, sports and education sectors, but these are yet not decided finally. The reason Sahara is willing to invest in Bangladesh only for the emotional attachment and rapidly gr owing economic condition of the country. Analysis Foreign investment is a very positive action to accelerate a country s economy and p lays a very vital role in the balance of payments. Thus investment from the Saha ra group in such huge amount in the country s infrastructure sector is really apprec iable. Other than that, as the country s currency is devaluated against dollar, such investment certainly sustain the devaluation of Taka. Apart from that as the Sa hara is urged to invest in the housing sector and promise to provide very afford able housing facilities, it will certainly enhance the life style of the middle class people. The permission provided to Sahara to invest made a very strong bond with India a nd other multinational corporation in terms of business. Sahara s investment provide s an assurance to other foreign corporation that Bangladesh is profitable to inv est. For this investment Bangladesh got an opportunity to attract foreign invest ment more and more. As Sahara also desire more to invest in other sectors, furni shing them to invest in the housing sectors opens more hopes of more investment in future. This investment also raises questions about competition. Investment from such gi gantic company is really a matter of great concern for the local business enterp rises. It is for sure that the companies like Basundhara, Jamuna, Concord are un able to sustain their business besides Sahara group. Since the local companies a re very able to invest and develop the housing and infrastructure sectors, it is less essential to give permission to a foreign company to invest. Also resource s to share for developing the housing facilities are not sufficient at least not at all for a township project. If they do permit to build apartment pressure ov er the power supply and gas supply will not tolerable. Then more importing of ra w materials and resources will be needed and these badly pressurize our economy. There are also other problems arise like the impact over the environment. As the y need a huge amount greenery land to develop, such offerings will adversely aff ect the environmental conditions. There also arise questions like how much the c ompany thinks about the betterment of the country people rather than their profi ts. Will the projects terms and conditions are clear to the local expert people, and facilitating the foreign raw materials to enter will not create devastating problems to local suppliers are also matters of concern. Conclusion In the conclusion we can say that foreign investment certainly indicates a posit ive sign to become globalized. But permitting to foreign investment in such sect ors which are well developed and the local parties are well enough to invest, is not a good initiative. Because Bangladesh is very lucrative in terms and condit ions of foreign direct investment, local companies can easily face sustainable p roblems for competition. But at this time Bangladesh highly need foreign investm ent mainly in the power and energy sectors. So permitting Sahara to invest in th e housing gives the hope of more investment in other sectors not only by Sahara, also by other foreign companies. Suggestions would be like giving them strong terms and constrain their investments to such amount which can favor the local b

usiness enterprises to compete. Source The Financial Express http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=130797&date=2012-05-26