Collaboration: Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA)
Starting date: April 6, 2026
Completion date: November 16, 2026

Project description: As Bangladesh approaches graduation from the Least Developed Country category, the quality of evidence underpinning investment policy has never mattered more. Yet investment-related information in the country remains scattered across numerous agencies, recorded in different formats and rarely reconciled, leaving no single, authoritative picture of who is investing, in which sectors, and where.

With the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) has commissioned SANEM to build a comprehensive, One-Stop-Service-ready investment information system covering the manufacturing and services sectors. Over an eight-month engagement, the project gathers and reconciles enterprise records from investment promotion agencies, regulators, chambers, and associations; verifies them through a complete on-site census of foreign and joint-venture enterprises and a statistically representative survey of domestic firms; and consolidates the result into a standardised, OSS-integrated database.

Beyond the database, the project delivers analytical reports and policy briefs on Bangladesh’s investment landscape, alongside a national investment compendium that brings together the relevant acts, rules, and regulations into a single, user-friendly reference for investors and policymakers. National in reach and covering all eight divisions, the initiative is designed to leave BIDA with not only reliable data but the systems and capacity to keep it current, strengthening the evidence base for investment promotion in the years that follow graduation.

Theme: Infrastructure and Investment

Team leader:
Dr Selim Raihan, Team Leader/ Senior Economist

Team members:
Dr Bazlul Haque Khondker, Microeconomist
Dr Syed Shahadat Hossain, Statistician
Zubayer Hossen, Data Analyst
Mahtab Uddin, Data Analyst
Md. Tuhin Ahmed, Data Analyst
Takrem Ferdous Surid, Programme Analyst
Shafa Tasneem, Research Associate
Sudeepto Roy, Research Associate
Mohammad Iftekharul Islam, Research Associate
Nafis Mubarrat, Research Associate
Afsana Ahmed, Programme Associate
A.W. Shamsul Arefin, Enumerator
Md. Obaidul Haque, Enumerator
Kh. Murshed Alam Kanon, Enumerator
Md. Mohiuddin Patowary, Enumerator
Md. Farid Uddin, Enumerator