Ways of integration of the two economies were discussed at the Bangladesh-India trade talks in Dhaka so that the two neighbours together could take a leading role in the region on the economic front.
The Indian side committed to resolving all pending trade issues with Bangladesh with this greater good in view, sources close to the commerce secretary-level meeting Sunday said.
Both sides were learnt to have expressed their resolve to address the pending issues, hindering trade and business between the two countries, bilaterally with utmost sincerity.
The issues that figured high at the meet include development of bilateral trade, trade facilitates and various tricky matters.
In this regard, Dhaka and New Delhi hoped to go ahead contributing to each other's progress.
"We had discussions on various trade-related issues. We tried to resolve issues that are pending and we hope very strongly that our friendship will be strengthened further through this talk," said Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al- Mamoon.
The top commerce official struck such note of optimism while briefing journalists after the bilateral discussion at the Pan Pacific Hotel Sonargaon.
Terming the bilateral meeting very fruitful, Indian Commerce Secretary Rajeev Kher said they had discussed ways and means to integrate the economic markets of the two countries.
"We want to integrate the economies in a manner that we benefit from each other's strengths and capacities so that we can together play a role in the regional and global economy," said the Indian commerce secretary.
"We exchanged views on variety of issues, primarily driven by two objectives. One objective is to see how India and Bangladesh develop stronger trade relationships bilaterally and to see how problems which come in way of bilateral trade are sorted out," Mr Kher said.
The commerce secretaries of both the countries briefed the journalists very briefly, without entertaining any question from the press. They finished the briefing in minutes.
Business leaders and experts are continuously demanding that India should remove non-tariff and para-tariff barriers to help Bangladesh in increasing exports to the country to reduce a yawning trade gap between the two next-door neighbours.
Meeting sources said they particularly discussed issues like the major trade barriers, but did not disclose the outcome.
But they hoped that both the groups were working sincerely to resolve the issues and increase the trade between the two countries.
By official count, the two-way trade between Bangladesh and India stood at US$ 6.6 billion in 2013-14 with India's exports bagging US$ 6.1 billion and imports from Bangladesh standing at a paltry figure of US$462 million.
Bangladesh renewed the trade agreement recently with India for another five years with a major shift from the existing three-year duration that expired on March 31 this year.
The latest deal on bilateral trade will also stand renewed automatically every five years.
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