The government plans to establish three new commercial wings in China, Turkey and South Africa amid the lure of trade bonanza in the world's emerging economic hubs.
Commerce Ministry officials informed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already given the green signal while a proposal had been sent to the Ministry of Public Administration for the creation of necessary posts for the proposed commercial wings.
Although Bangladesh currently has diplomatic missions in more than 50 countries around the world, it has commercial wings in only 19 countries, the latest of which will become operational in South Korea's Seoul this month.
And many of these overseas commercial wings are not strategically located. Many are situated in the purposely built capitals of their host countries-far from the major business hubs where much of the trade and commerce takes place.
However, in the light of the country's growing overseas trade ties, there have been strong calls from business communities in recent times for establishing new trade wings in commercially important cities across the globe.
In this context, the Ministry of Commerce recently came up with the proposal for setting up new commercial wings in China's Kunming, Turkey's Istanbul and South Africa's Johannesburg.
China is Bangladesh's biggest trading partner. It is the biggest source of Bangladesh's imports and also a growingly important destination for the country's exports.
The two-way trade between China and Bangladesh already reached US$ 10.47 billion in 2015-16 from only more than a billion dollars in 2002.
Currently, Bangladesh has a commercial wing located in the Chinese capital, Beijing. However, it has often been pointed out that it is very difficult to manage the bilateral trade issues of such a vast country with a single commercial arm.
In this context, China's southeastern commercial hub of Kunming has often been cited as a potential site for a second commercial mission of Bangladesh in China.
Located in Yunnan province, Kunming is an important transport hub which links China with many Southeast Asian countries. For Bangladesh, the city acts as one of the main gateways to China on air route.
"Already, Bangladeshi products have a big market in the southwestern region of China," said S M Masudur Rahman, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce.
"In addition, the importance of Kunming as a business centre would further increase once the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) economic corridor becomes operational," Mr Rahman pointed out.
If a direct road link can be established with Kunming in the near future, he said, this city can act as a hub for Bangladesh to expand its market in China and Southeast Asia.
Istanbul, on the other hand, sits in-between Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia and acts as an important global transit point.
It is the main commercial and business hub of Turkey while many Bangladeshi exports to the European Union are also channeled through this important commercial hub.
"Although Bangladesh has a diplomatic mission in Ankara, it has no commercial wing as such. In this context, Istanbul is the obvious choice as the site for a commercial wing in Turkey," said a Commerce Ministry official.
And South Africa has turned out to be a major emerging economic power in Africa and, therefore, a growingly attractive market for traders from across the world.
However, it has been found that Bangladeshi exporters often find it difficult to tap the South African market due to high duty on import.
"Having a commercial wing in South Africa, preferably in Johannesburg, will not only enable us to tap the South African market but also can help us to make headway to other countries within the southern African region," a high official concerned said about merit of the government move for spreading the country's commercial wings.
Bangladesh exported goods and services worth US$ 325.04 million to the African region back in 2016-17 while the total worth of exports shifted to South Africa was around US$ 68.26 million.
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