India ready to grant 5-yr visas to Bangladeshi businessmen

FE Team | Published: October 23, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
India is poised to provide Bangladeshi businessmen a five-year visa with a broader goal of fostering trade and investments between the two neighbouring countries.
"We're ready to grant five-year business visas to the members of the Bangladeshi business community," the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Pinak R Chakrabarty said.
His announcement came Monday at an investment promotion meeting between business leaders of Bangladesh and India in the city, organised by the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI).
A 10-member mission of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), led by Shreekant Somany, is now in the city to explore investment and joint venture opportunities in Bangladesh.
The Indian envoy, however, made it clear that it would require striking a bilateral agreement between Dhaka and New Delhi before establishing such a visa regime.
"We've a 10-year multiple business visa arrangement with the United States. Similar arrangements are put in place with the European Union. We'll be happy to look at that (for Bangladesh)," Chakrabarti told a questioner.
President of the MCCI Latifur Rahman chaired the meeting, also addressed by members of the MCCI and the CII.
In reply to another question, Chakrabarti said the much-talked-about Dhaka-Kolkata train service has got bogged down, due in part to infrastructure and security measures.
"One reason why the Dhaka-Kolkata rail service is getting delayed is infrastructure.
Another reason is that the government of Bangladesh hasn't yet put in place security measures on rail tracks. This is also entangled in the legacy of history," the Indian senior diplomat said in an oblique reference to the mistrust.
Chakrabarti seemed to be frustrated at the way the Bangladesh government was handling a couple of large foreign investment proposals, including that of India's Tata Group.
"We need to work faster. The proposals should not be kept pending for long time," he said without mentioning Dhaka's delay in approving India's Tata Group's US$3.0 billion investment proposal.
Turning to the bilateral trade between Bangladesh and India, the Indian High Commissioner pointed out that trade between the two next-door neighbours rose to US$ 2.5 billion in 2006 from US$2.1 billion in the year ago.
In parallel, he said, Bangladeshi exports to India grew by 16 per cent last year.
Chakrabarti, however, acknowledged that the balance of two-way trade is still "unsustainable" and there remained several non-tariff barriers.
In his speech, Somany underlined the need for developing infrastructure at land border customs posts and streamlining customs procedures and administration to help promote trade between the two countries.
In this connection, the Indian investment mission leader proposed an eight-point agenda for promoting the two-way trade between Dhaka and New Delhi.
Establishment of a joint task force, an investment promotion mission from Bangladesh and holding of a "Made in Bangladesh" exhibition in India's major cities are among the agenda put forward by the Indian mission chief.
In his prepared speech, the MCCI president reminded the Indian diplomats and business leaders of the embargo on Bangladeshi investments in India and said the Bangladeshi business community is waiting for the withdrawal of the ban "at the earliest."
Rahman urged the Indian investors to invest in Bangladesh's labour-intensive sectors like electronics assembly and manufacturing, light engineering, computer software, capitalising on the country's "competitive production base."
"There are also plenty of scope of investments in other sectors such as composite textile, leather, paper and pulp, energy, healthcare, shipping, telecommunications and agro-based industries," he told the members of the business elite.