The net inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) from India to Bangladesh crossed $100 million level for the first time last year.
In its latest statistics, Bangladesh Bank (BB) said the net FDI from the neighbouring country stood at $102.7 million in 2015, 45.5 per cent up from $70.6 million in 2014.
The gross inflow of FDI from India was $114.13 million last year. As $11.43 million was disinvested in the same year, the net inflow stood at $102.7 million.
Disinvestment generally means withdrawal of existing investment.
The central bank data also showed that financial and textile sectors shared almost 50 per cent of total Indian FDI last year.
Meanwhile, in an interview with The Hindu Business Line (HBL), published on Friday, Dr Mashiur Rahman, economic affairs advisor of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said Bangladesh should take a more focused approach to attract Indian FDI and take full advantage of the recent co-operation overdrive between the two nations.
"We expected Indian FDI but to do that, our industry-related policies, including taxation, duty, etc needed to be fine-tuned. But, it couldn't be done (as we had) to protect interests of local (small) industries," he told The HBL, an Indian national business daily.
Though two countries have signed memorandum of understanding for several mega power and energy projects during the visit of Indian prime minister in June last, so far little progress has been made in this regard.
In 2015, investment in power sector form India stood at $6.11 million.