Bangladesh should contain corruption and improve governance to achieve more growth which will lead to reduce poverty level and ensure prosperous future.

US ambassador to Bangladesh, Harry K Thomas, on Monday said this at the customer gathering of Bangla CAT, Bangladeshi official dealer of earth equipment giant Caterpillar.

‘Citizens and investors need to have confidence in effectiveness and fairness of a country’s regulatory and judicial systems, and be confident that the sanctity of contracts is respected accordance to good spirit and law,’ Thomas said.

‘Moreover, for markets to operate efficiently and fairly, the government procurement process must be transparent and accountable.’

Bangla CAT organised the gathering at China-Bangladesh Friendship Centre in Dhaka to exhibit different products of Caterpillar, a US-based manufacturer of construction and mining equipments, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines and electric power generation system.

He claimed that Caterpillar generators produce 490 megawatts of power in Bangladesh, which is around 15 per cent of the total generation and the country has been the biggest market in Asia-Pacific region for gas generation in recent years.

The US envoy said that he was concerned of the steady growth of Bangladesh’s ‘huge trade surplus’ with the US, which is over $ 2 billion and hoped that with the marketing of Caterpillar products might help to reduce the gap.

US embassy in Dhaka and the American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh were in the final stage of preparing a three-day annual trade show of US products from February 16 at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.

The US in collaboration with the Bangladesh government is trying to organise a Bangladesh Road Show in three American cities later this year to promote bilateral trade and investment, he added.

M Aminul Haque, chief executive officer of Bangla CAT, presided over the seminar. The seminar was attended by Mark C Schoenman, director and general manager of Caterpillar Australasia region, Nazim A Haque and Tarique E Haque, directors of Bangla CAT.