Bangladesh’s net foreign direct investment (FDI) in a financial year has crossed the $2 billion mark for the first time in the history.

According to the latest balance of payment (BOP) figures released by Bangladesh Bank, net FDIs in the last FY 2015-16 stood at $2.001 billion, up by 9.34 percent from the previous fiscal.

Net FDI inflow is calculated by deducting the disinvested amount from the gross flow.

FDIs in Bangladesh come as equity capital, reinvested earning and intra-company loan, making up the Gross Flow.

Disinvestment is calculated by deducting the cost recovery and profit-sharing amount, which the foreign companies take out from the country on investments made.

Analysts attributed the rise to mega infrastructure projects like the Padma Bridge by the Bangladesh government.

Zaid Bakht, a research director at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, says he hopes that the upward trend will continue provided political stability prevails and terrors attacks like Gulshan and Sholakia does not happen again.

>>Most of the FDIs coming in last year were from the US, UK, South Korea, Australia, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and India.

>>The sectors that attracted foreign investors the most were gas and petroleum, textiles, banking, telecoms, power, food, cement, leather and leather goods.

Foreign portfolio investment drops

Despite the rise in net FDI inflow, foreign portfolio investment in the local capital markets, however, registered a significant decrease in the last fiscal.

The stock markets attracted foreign investments worth $124 million in FY 2015-16, down by 67 percent from the previous fiscal when it saw investments of $379 million.