Trust, Trade & Transformation: Deepening the Bangladesh–Netherlands Investment Partnership 

Over the past two decades, the Bangladesh-Netherlands investment partnership has turned a new page. What was once confined in development cooperation has progressively shifted toward a commercial partnership defined by trade, foreign direct investment, and above all, mutual trust. That trust has become especially important at a time when global supply chains are being reorganized in response to geopolitical shifts.  

At the same time, the partnership is increasingly defined by a clear complementarity between the two economies. Bangladesh brings scale, competitiveness, and a steadily expanding industrial base. The Netherlands, in turn, contributes deep expertise in compliance and sustainable business practices, collectively setting the stage for more resilient collaboration. 

To further explore the opportunities offered by this growing partnership, Larive International and LightCastle Partners co-hosted the Bangladesh–Netherlands Trade and Investment Dialogue on April 30, 2026, bringing together private sector leaders, investors, diplomats, government agencies, and industry associations. Following the event, a white paper was launched outlining priority sectors and emerging opportunities for deepening Bangladesh–Netherlands trade and investment cooperation.  

Where The Mutual Benefit Lies 

Bangladesh’s investment case is built on more than a decade of steady GDP growth, averaging around 6.4 percent. What really stands out right now is the shift happening underneath these headline numbers. The country is moving from a low-cost production base towards a more diversified, technology-driven economy, backed by (i) a demographic dividend with 45% population under the age of 25 (ii) a rapidly expanding middle class (iii) and a policy environment that increasingly welcomes foreign capital. These are not signs of a country that is just getting started; they reflect an economy that has already been building momentum for years. 

In the words of Mr. Nicolaas Jan (Koos) Dijkstra, Deputy Ambassador and Head of Trade at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bangladesh, “Bangladesh is the 8^th largest country in the world in terms of population, with around 180 million inhabitants. This means that even a relatively small market share can translate into substantial commercial value for companies and investors.” 

In essence, Bangladesh’s growing consumer market, expanding industrial base, and demand for technology, infrastructure and sustainable production systems have been closely aligning with Dutch investment interests. As rightly noted by Mr. Nahiyan Rahman Rochi, Head of Business Development at Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), “The Netherlands was the single largest investor in Bangladesh in 2025. In fact, a major investment in port infrastructure has stood among the largest foreign investment commitments Bangladesh has received in recent years, reflecting growing investor confidence in the country’s long-term potential.” 

What makes the Netherlands such a befitting partner is that its strengths speak directly to what Bangladesh requires. For instance, it is the world’s second-largest agricultural exporter and has strong expertise in greenhouse systems and agri-logistics. This presents a relevant area of expertise that Bangladesh can draw upon to mitigate the country’s roughly 40% post-harvest losses. The Netherlands is also a global leader in delta engineering, which is especially relevant as climate pressures continue to rise in Bangladesh. Thus, the Dutch brings the strengths of a mature economy, including capital, advanced technology, and deep institutional expertise. Bangladesh, on the other hand, contributes a large and growing workforce of about 2.2 million people annually, a developing industrial and technology base, and expanding access to regional markets, further contributing to this growing complementary relationship. 

Sectoral Synergies in Focus 

During the event, a joint presentation by Larive International and LightCastle Partners highlighted some key sectors with strong potential for collaboration between the two countries. The conversation extended well beyond the presentation itself, with experts and industry leaders in attendance adding their lived experience and practical knowledge on the evolving global trade landscape. 

• Agri-food and Agritech: Agriculture stood out as one of the most actionable areas for Bangladesh-Netherlands collaboration at the webinar, given that Bangladesh loses nearly 30% of its agricultural output to post-harvest inefficiencies. As Mr. Rik Recourt, Senior Associate of Agri-business at FMO noted, “With the relatively competitive workforce [of Bangladesh], there is a lot of capacity to really move more into value-added products,” pointing to the sector’s untapped potential.  

In this regard, The Netherlands brings strong capabilities in agri-tech, posing advanced innovations in cold-chain logistics, greenhouse systems, precision farming, and food processing. The alignment is already beginning to translate into action, with the Dutch Fund for Climate and Development acting as an active financing channel. It has already deployed grants through ACI and Ispahani as early examples of blended finance in practice. 

• Renewable energy and circular economy: Currently, renewables account for just around 5–6% of Bangladesh’s total electricity generation mix, highlighting the scale of the transformation that lies ahead. Throughout the webinar, participants openly recognized the pressing energy challenges confronting the country. Mr. Rogier Becker, Emerging Markets Advisor at Larive International, addressed this issue head-on, observing that “Due to the energy crisis, this renewable energy sector offers a lot of opportunities, with solar and wind emerging as the most viable pathways forward.” He further emphasized that strategic investment in clean energy infrastructure could not only alleviate the country’s chronic power shortages but also position Bangladesh as a competitive player in the regional green economy. Stakeholders agreed that unlocking this potential will require coordinated policy support, streamlined regulatory frameworks, and active engagement from both domestic and international investors. 

On the circular economy front, the discussion focused heavily on Bangladesh’s garment sector as one of the most immediate opportunities for collaboration, particularly because the industry generates nearly 0.4 Mn tonnes of pre-consumer textile waste each year. This is making circularity far more than just an environmental concern. Mr. Mubassir Rahman, Principal Business Consultant & Portfolio Manager from LightCastle Partners added that “Dutch and Bangladeshi collaborators are already working together in small pockets on plastic and textile waste recovery, pointing to the Netherlands’ own target of going 50% circular by 2030.” 

• Maritime and Port Logistics: Handling over 90% of the country’s international trade, the sector is central to Bangladesh’s export ambitions. Yet, it remains constrained by operational inefficiencies and infrastructure limitations. At the webinar, much of the discussion focused on Chattogram port, where inefficiencies such as long dwell times and reliance on feeder vessels continue to constrain export competitiveness. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience, Mr. Schouten noted that “The ideal situation is that Chattogram port becomes a deep seaport so that people can send in bigger ships.”  

This points directly to a clear area of opportunity, where the Netherlands can step in as a partner. Home to two of the world’s top three dredging companies, Dutch expertise spans the full spectrum of what Bangladesh needs, including channel deepening, delta management, and terminal operations. 

• Water & Climate Resilience: As two delta nations, Bangladesh and the Netherlands share the challenge of coastal protection, flood management, and river systems, making this a historically central pillar of the bilateral relationship. Mr. Shakawat Hossain Mamun, President of Dutch-Bangla Chamber of Commerce & Industries underscored the depth of this alignment: “In case of river management or sea management expertise, Netherlands is number one in the world.” Bangladesh’s 710-kilometre coastline and vast infrastructural development needs make Dutch water management expertise not just relevant, but indispensable. 

Beyond the mentioned sectors, discussions also highlighted healthcare technology, light engineering, and IT/IT-enabled services as additional areas holding meaningful collaboration potential.  

Addressing the Bottlenecks & Charting the Way Forward 

The webinar was notable for the candor with which the participants discussed the challenges they encountered. Several structural and operational bottlenecks emerged repeatedly across the speakers, as outlined below. 

• Licensing and Registration Hurdles: Bangladesh ranked 105th out of 190 economies in the World Bank’s 2020 Doing Business index, with starting a business requiring an estimated 19.5 days across multiple procedural steps. While BIDA’s One Stop Service portal now covers 154 services across 35 agencies, full digital integration and wider decentralized access are still in progress.  

Mr. Shakawat, drawing on DBCCI’s direct facilitation experience with Dutch investors, put the gap in concrete terms: “If a Dutch company intends to operate in Jashore, some of the required documentation may still need to be processed in Dhaka.”  The consequence is that foreign investors are compelled to engage a local partner not out of strategic choice, but out of administrative necessity. 

• Port & Customs Complexity: Bangladesh’s port and customs ecosystem remains one of the more persistent friction points for foreign investors. Mr.  Schouten of LC Packaging spoke candidly about this, mentioning “Import and export formalities are often quite complex, time-consuming and therefore also costly.” Reflecting on one of his shipments, he mentioned that making last-minute changes to container documentation was nearly impossible to accommodate.  

On a similar note, Mr. Shakawat Hossain Mamun pointed to port testing and customs-related delays as a recurring source of frustration for foreign investors. While the Matarbari deep-sea port promises to reduce shipping costs and eliminate the need for trans-shipment, the path to a truly efficient port ecosystem will require reform that goes beyond infrastructure alone. 

• Limited Access to Foreign-Currency Financing: Bangladesh’s gross foreign exchange reserves fell sharply from a peak of approximately $48 billion in August 2021 to around $20 billion by late 2023, prompting Bangladesh Bank to curtail dollar liquidity and tighten conditions on foreign-currency lending. Mr. Rik Recourt of FMO observed that “In a period shaped by global funding constraints and more cautious capital flows, Bangladesh continues to demonstrate strong underlying demand across sectors, creating viable and timely investment opportunities.” However, Mr. Schouten highlighted that the scope for dollar- or euro-denominated lending remains “a bit out of sight,” suggesting that improved availability of foreign-currency financing could play an important role in accelerating Netherlands’ deepening participation in the market. 

• Profit Repatriation Delays: Bangladesh’s net FDI inflows have remained modest relative to its economic scale, averaging around $3–4 billion annually, with repatriation friction frequently cited by investors. Nonetheless, the panel discussion revealed that the experience can differ depending on the nature of the investment. Speaking from a lender’s perspective, Mr. Rik Recourt noted that “We get our repayment schedule approved by the Central Bank or the regulators, so there’s no problem in repatriation,” implying that repayment flows tied to debt financing tend to face fewer obstacles than equity-related returns. Echoing this distinction, Mr. Schouten mentioned that LC Packaging has repatriated dividends successfully, though it has often chosen to reinvest nearly all profits back into Bangladesh. Encouragingly, recent regulatory reform is beginning to address this long-standing pain point. Bangladesh has introduced a new policy allowing foreign investors to repatriate profits of up to BDT 100 crore without prior approval, marking a tenfold increase from the earlier BDT 10 crore threshold. 

• Absence of a Deep-Sea Port: Chattogram port handles approximately 95% of Bangladesh’s international trade, processing over 3.2 million TEUs annually, yet its navigable draft of around 9–9.5 meters makes it inaccessible to large deep-sea vessels, forcing all major shipments to be transshipped through intermediate hubs such as Singapore or Colombo at added cost and time. Mr. Marcel Schouten was direct about what needs to change: “The ideal situation is that Chattogram port becomes a deep-sea port, so there are no feeder vessels to be restuffed at Singapore or Colombo,” urging the government to treat this as a national priority. 

Despite these challenges, the session concluded on an optimistic and solution-oriented note. The webinar served as an important platform to bring existing constraints directly to the attention of relevant stakeholders, enabling open dialogue on practical pathways forward. Participants acknowledged that progress is already being made across several areas and expressed confidence in continued improvements ahead. In this context, Mr. Nicolaas Jan (Koos) Dijkstra emphasized that advancing the next phase of Bangladesh–Netherlands partnership will require not only sustained investor interest but also continued efforts to reduce non-tariff barriers and strengthen public–private collaboration among businesses, government institutions, and development finance partners. 

Mr. Nahiyan Rahman Rochi from BIDA concluded with a grounded reflection, noting that companies such as Dutch Bangla Pack have been part of Bangladesh’s investment landscape for decades. Challenges exist, he acknowledged, but investors who enter the market rarely leave. As Mr. Schouten also aptly put it, “Once you see it, you believe it.”

References 

1. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. 2022. “Population and Housing Census 2022: Preliminary Report”. Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

2. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. 2023. “Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2022: Provisional Report”. Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

3. Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA). 2025. “Foreign Direct Investment in Bangladesh: Annual Report 2025”. Dhaka, Bangladesh. 

4. Chittagong Port Authority. 2024. “Annual Traffic Statistics Report 2023–24”. Chittagong, Bangladesh. 

5. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 2023. “Reducing Post-Harvest Losses in South Asia: Country Case Studies”. Rome, Italy. 

6. Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). 2023. “The Netherlands: World’s Second Largest Agricultural Exporter”. The Hague, Netherlands. 

7. Netherlands Government. 2023. “Netherlands Circular Economy Programme 2023–2030”. The Hague, Netherlands. 

8. UNCTAD. 2024. “World Investment Report 2024: Investment Facilitation for Development”. Geneva, Switzerland. 

9. World Bank. 2020. “Doing Business 2020: Comparing Business Regulation in 190 Economies”. Washington, D.C., United States. 

10. World Bank. 2024. “Bangladesh Development Update: Navigating Uncertainty”. Washington, D.C., United States.