DHAKA: A Japanese real-estate firm has now expressed its interest to invest in a large-scale to meet the demand of middle-income group in the capital.
Creed Asia BD Company Limited (Bangladesh) is willing to invest $300 million (Tk 2339-crore) to develop a modern and affordable housing at Bashundhara Residential Area.
According to the real-estate group, they will initiate the project if they find an investment-friendly environment.
The group wanted to construct approximately 2,000 world-class and luxurious flats at Bashundhara Residential Area under Japan-Bangladesh joint venture.
Besides luxurious flats, the renowned real-estate group intends to build multiplex modern residential flats that will be within purchase capacity of middle-class people.
As a pilot project, the group has already started working at Bashundhara Residential Area. But, as informed by Creed Group authorities, a large-scale investment is still not attracted due to some hassles.
In this regard, the group’s authorities sought cooperation from Bangladesh government.
Alongside Bangladesh, the Creed Group has invested in the real-estate sector in countries such as – Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Singapore.
The Japanese investors think that compared to other countries, investing in Bangladesh is difficult due to some strict rules and policies.
The aforesaid information was focused at a seminar of Creed Asia BD at the conference room of the East-West Media Group Ltd (EWMGL) on Friday (December 18).
According to them, they faced some difficulties while starting their work in small scale, and if these obstacles are removed, Creed Group is ready to bring large-scale investment.
In a joint venture with Dhaka-based developer company Jams Development Limited, Creed Group has been operating in Bangladesh since 2014. The group has already invested Tk 100-crore. Within this time, they had built 49 residential units.
However, Creed and James groups’ first priority is to increase its investment by 300-m dollars at Bashundhara Residential Area. James Development Group’s chairman Iqbal Hossain Chowdhury came up this assertion.
Creed Asia BD Co Limited CEO Masanobu Kamiyama said, “Our aim is to ensure development in real-estate sector. We are working to achieve this goal”.
Mentioning Bangladesh a country of investment potential, Kamiyama added, “Bangladesh is an attractive place for business. A large portion of people in the country are young, therefore, the economy flourishes rapidly. This kind of environment is suitable for investment”.
He opined that if rules and policies are more smoothened for foreign investment, big corporate organizations like Creed Group can invest more efficiently and easily.
In this regard, he pointed out some specific rules and regulations of National Board of Revenue (NBR) and Bangladesh Bank (BB).
Pointing out the reason why the group is interested at Bashundhara Residential Area, Creed Asia founder Toshihiko Muneyoshi said the area (Bashundhara) is located in an attractive place in Dhaka. Moreover, it is located near the airport and beside Purbachal.
He also opined, “It is the right place to build better homes for people of middle-income group”.
“We want to do something new. We are not conventional, our aim is to build a modern city,” he added.
Another member of the representative team, Engineer Hisaya Sugiyama, claimed, “Creed believes in quality. If Bangladesh government helps Creed Group to increase investment in real-estate sector, new and modern building designs can be brought in Bangladesh”.
Jams Development chairman Iqbal Hossain Chowdhury pointed out some adversaries of foreign investment in Bangladesh.
Among the problems, opening an account for the foreign project, joint stock registration, the complexity of bringing fund from investing country, minimum time limit for sending profit to investor’s country (so far at least 5 years) and so on, he added.
At the seminar, Bangla daily ‘Bangladesh Pratidin’ editor Naem Nizam, Bashundhara Group adviser (Press and Media) Mohammad Abu Tayeb briefed the Japanese delegation about media of Bangladesh, including newspapers and online of East-West Media Group.
It needs to be mentioned that in 2014, Creed Group started their first project called ‘Creed Blessed Hill’ at Bashundhara Residential Area. The project (building) consists of 10 floors and it will be containing duplex and semi-duplex flats.
Other than this, the project will include playgrounds for children, garden, gymnasium, swimming pool, indoor games facility, multi-purpose room and other facilities.
BDST: 1429 HRS, DEC 20, 2015
AS/RS/SMS
