India-Bangladesh trade body launched

Businessmen from India and Bangladesh on Sunday launched a trade body with a call for unfolding scopes and boosting trade and commerce between the two next-door neighbours.

By Nazrul Islam

Dhaka, July 22 : Businessmen from India and Bangladesh on Sunday launched a trade body with a call for unfolding scopes and boosting trade and commerce between the two next-door neighbours.

Inaugurating the function to mark launching of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Dhaka, Bangladesh's President Iajuddin Ahmed asked the authorities concerned to take appropriate measures to increase Bangladesh's export to Indian market to reduce the huge trade gap.

"I would like to see [smooth] entry of Bangladeshi products to Indian market," said the President.

Indian State Minister for Commerce, Jairam Ramesh, assured Bangladesh of eliminating trade barriers as earliest as possible, putting forward the issue of giving India transit through Bangladesh territory.

He also sought access to Chittagong port to boost bilateral trade between the two countries.

"If Bangladesh wants to reduce the trade deficit with India quickly, I would once again request that you consider the long-standing issue of granting of transit rights to India.... Bangladesh is perfectly entitled to ask - what will we get in return for granting transit?" said Ramesh.

India accounts for 12-15 per cent of Bangladesh's formal imports and out of a trade volume of 2.09 billion dollars, Bangladesh exports only 242 million dollars to India.

The Indian minister underlined the need for development of the additional land customs stations and improving the existing ones, and also striking a deal on multi-modal transportation systems.

The Bangladesh President expressed his optimism that the newly constituted chamber would take positive steps to adopt appropriate measures to explore all avenues of economic cooperation with a view to boosting investment, trade and commerce.

He also called upon the foreign investors to invest in Bangladesh and import its top-quality pharmaceuticals, melamine, garments, frozen foods, ceramic, and leather and jute products at a competitive price.

Ramesh expressed conviction that investment was the key to reduce the existing trade gap.

"Investments by Indian companies in Bangladesh will help India to import more from Bangladesh," he said, referring to a number of Indian investment proposals remaining pending with Bangladesh authorities.

Bangladesh's finance adviser to the interim administration, Mirza Azizul Islam, the president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Nasir Hossain, the president of the India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Abdul Matlub Ahmad, senior vice president and resident director of Tata Group, Syed Manzer Hussain, addressed the inaugural function among others.

ANI