Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) led by its Honorable Chairman Professor Shibli Rubayat Ul Islam is now organizing a Road Show in different cities in USA at a time when Corona Virus is plagued by epidemics in the world. With this very show efforts are now being made to motivate Bangladeshis living in the US and American businessmen to invest in the country and its stock market. The show is funded mainly by Walton, Eastern Bank and Nagad.

With the help of privately owned companies, there was no problem if such shows were held at normal times with a fleet of necessary and unnecessary officials to travel abroad. But sources apprehend that the problem is that by sponsoring this expensive show, these three companies are trying getting some unfair advantage from BSEC.

The Bangladesh stock market is considered by experts as a speculative market. The infrastructure needed to build a fundamental market has not yet been developed. As a result, foreign investment and portfolio investment in the stock market in Bangladesh has not yet reached a significant level.

Experts said that some NGO linkage companies, especially Grameen Phone, BRAC Bank, Delta BRAC Housing, Banglalink and some other who are indirectly involved in money laundering are mainly investing in the stock market of Bangladesh.

Besides, the government revenue board had engaged a big tussle with GrameenPhone over a huge amount of taxes. This incident also irritated foreign investors to invest in Bangladesh. The other investors also become cautious about further investment to Bangladesh which led a continuous fall of portfolio investment to the country.

However, the BSEC sent a representative of Bangladesh Bank to attend the show, Bangladesh Bank did not show any interest in the show and did not send any representative.

So the question is about this road show sponsored by Walton and Nagad, is whether it was a corporate gift again?