The Bangladeshi government Tuesday expressed fears of losing foreign investment due to political tension following a bomb blast at an opposition rally that killed 20 people this month.
The Board of Investment, which is under Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's office, said India's giant Tata company had delayed signing an agreement to set up a two billion-dollar factory for steel, power and fertiliser in western Bangladesh.
An expression of interest statement was set to be signed in the second week of September but was postponed by Tata until October in the wake of the August 21 blast, Board of Investment chairman Mahmudur Rahman said.
"This proposed investment by Tata Company is the single biggest foreign investment for Bangladesh," he said. "Now because of the present political situation everything has become shaky.
"We can't bring in foreign investment if things remain like this and both the government and opposition should try to resolve the situation for the sake of our economic stability," Rahman said.
Tata officials at the company headquarters in Bombay were not immediately available for comment after the claim was made in Dhaka.
Rahman also said unspecified companies from Taiwan were planning to set up an industrial park either in India or Bangladesh but may lose interest here due to the political situation.
The main opposition Awami League said the blasts were an attempt to assassinate its leader, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, who spoke at the rally but was not hurt.
The Awami League has called four strikes in the past week in an intensified campaign to oust the government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who has a longstanding rivalry with Sheikh Hasina.
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