Investor Chronicle, a UK based research organisation on market and investment, in a report last week short listed Bangladesh as one of the hottest emerging market having the potentials of attracting more foreign investment. The other emerging markets, according to the report, are Pakistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Egypt, United Arab Emirate (UAE) and Nigeria. The observation on Bangladesh by the Investor Chronicle (IC) came after two USA-based investment banks-JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs- praised the country's future economic prospect last year. The IC report said: "Bangladesh initially tends to get a rough deal when it comes to global perceptions-military rule prompted by rampant corruption, made increasingly worse by climate change which was inflicting huge natural damage on the deltas of the Bay of Bengal." The experts of the firm, however, see more and more adventurous global money flowing into the US$ 12 billion stock market that is expected to hit $15 billion by the year end. More IPOs like Grameen Phone, country's largest cell phone operator, is expected to go public and privatisation of a number of state entities to occur, it said, adding that a combination of reforms and privatisation was spurring interest. "International investors' interest is also growing" as the country is growing at around seven per cent and is maintaining solid foreign currency reserve, it said. "Citigroup's acquisition of a licence for investment banking is a sign of huge potential as is the entrance of many other multinationals (Shell, Unocal, BP, Mobil, HSBC, Citibank, Samsung, Toshiba, Cemex, Singtel, Orascom) into the local market." The scale and potential for Bangladesh is obvious- a population of 150 million, strong demographics, hard working people sending early signs of a growing middle class, the report added. JP Morgan also included Bangladesh in their 'Frontier Five' group of countries last year along with Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria and Vietnam. Goldman Sachs, a US-based investment banking and securities firm, put Bangladesh in its 'Next Eleven'- a group of nations having promising economic growth potential-to watch. The Next Eleven is the second term that the Goldman Sachs has coined to describe economies with high growth potential in the world as it first named BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). The 11 countries include Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, Turkey and Vietnam.