The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) is going to hold the "Bangladesh Business Summit-2023" on March 11-13 this year aiming to promote trade and investment marking its 50th founding anniversary.

ON March 11, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to inaugurate the event at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) and will also join the fireside chat with Richard Quest, one of the most prominent media figures from CNN in the USA.

The summit, envisaged to become Bangladesh's flagship business event, will highlight the country's economic and market strengths as well as concrete trade and investment opportunities in Bangladesh by convening national and global business leaders, investors, policymakers, practitioners, policy and market analysts, academia and innovators.

FBCCI officials said the Bangladesh Business Summit 2023 will also host the best of Bangladesh Expo and FBCCI Business Awards 2023. There will be three plenary sessions on strategic issues, 13 parallel technical sessions, B2B meets, networking sessions, open house reception and guided tours for international delegates. 

FBCCI senior vice president Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu said that business leaders, investors and CEOs and high ups of various local and foreign companies have been invited to attend the Summit.

"During the Summit, the high investment potentials in Bangladesh will be projected before the global business leaders and investors," he added.

Babu mentioned that the capability of Bangladesh has increased a lot in various fields while the environment of trade and investment has also improved over the years.

The FBCCI senior vice-president said that capitalizing on the congenial trade and investment environment, the foreign investors and businesses would be able to get a healthy return upon making their investment.

He also affirmed that the country's apex trade body is supplementing the government's vision for turning Bangladesh as a higher mid-income country by 2031 and a prosperous smart developed country by 2041.

As a special trait, for the first time in Bangladesh, CNN is going to host a fireside chat with Premier Sheikh Hasina, hosted by Richard Quest, anchor and correspondent, CNN Business Editor at Large. CNN will also conduct a session on Bangladesh business opportunities and a panel discussion with Richard Quest.

The FBCCI is partnering with CNN to cover the event globally. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) are also working with the FBCCI for the summit.

Prior to the start of the summit on March 10, the foreign delegates as well as Bangladeshi business leaders would be accorded a reception by the organisers at a city hotel.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to inaugurate the Business Summit on March 11 at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in the capital.

A panel discussion on the role of private sector investment and FDI for emerging economy is scheduled to be held while Richard Quest will speak to business leaders from major international companies and those responsible for creating a business environment in Bangladesh.

On day 2 on March 12, a session on "Digital Economy: Smart Bangladesh Perspective" will be held where ICT Advisor to Prime Minister Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed will remain present as the chief guest at the BICC.

Besides, there will be presentations to be made by the representative of Google, Meta, Tesla, IBM or relevant industry representatives.

After that, there will be separate sessions on "Developing Long-Term Finance Markets to Support New Growth Opportunities", "Private Sector Opportunities in Building Infrastructure for the Next Phase of Growth", "Leveraging Growing Middle and Affluent Class for a Vibrant Consumer", "Towards a US$100 Billion Apparel Sector: Leveraging Sustainability, Competitiveness and Investment 
Opportunities", Leveraging SMEs for Vibrant Supply-chain Linkage and Productivity Spillovers", "Catalyzing Green Investments for Sustainable Industrial and Infrastructure Sector".

The closing session of the Summit will also be held on that day followed by a media briefing at the BICC.

On the third day on March 13, the FBCCI Business Award 2023 will be held.

Besides, the foreign delegates and business leaders would be guided a tour of Louis Kahn's iconic architecture Bangladesh Parliament, a half day tour experiential factory visits for global business leaders to relevant Made in Bangladesh Icons, Open house reception by iconic industry leaders of Bangladesh to host global business leaders as per relevant Industries.

After the conference, exclusive-day tour or multi-day tour packages will be promoted to the foreign delegates to visit Bangladesh.