BD examines possible benefits of joining ASEAN Plus

Bangladesh is examining the possible benefits of joining the ASEAN Plus initiative as the country has been invited to join the regional body, officials said.
The chief representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Dhaka recently in a letter to Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor Dr Atiur Rahman said Bangladesh could join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade agreement (FTA) scheme of the 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member-states and its FTA partners.
Currently, ASEAN is negotiating with several countries to include them in the ASEAN Plus initiative.
The BB governor last week in a letter to ministry of commerce secretary Mahbub Ahmed sought to know about the government's position in case Bangladesh was interested to join the body.
"I will visit Japan in mid-March. If I get the government of Bangladesh's view, I can discuss it with the government of Japan," he wrote.
Sources said after being informed by the central bank, commerce ministry officials were now examining how much benefited the country would be if it joined RCEP.
"We will soon invite the local JICA head to discuss the benefits of our joining the regional body," a senior commerce ministry official told the FE Sunday.
He said as a least developed country (LDC), Bangladesh usually benefited from multilateral initiatives.
"I feel, as an LDC, we will also be benefited if we join RCEP, the ASEAN Plus group," the official said.
"We are seriously working on it since multilateral initiatives bring comparatively higher benefits for the LDCs than those from bilateral treaties," he added.
The RCEP aims at achieving a modern, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial economic partnership establishing an open trade and investment environment in the region to facilitate the expansion of trade and investment and contribute to global economic growth and development.
Its goals also include boosting economic growth and equitable economic development, advancing economic cooperation and broadening and deepening integration in the region through RCEP, which will build upon the members' existing economic linkages.
In the RCEP, provisions of special and differential treatment as well as additional flexibility option will remain considering the different levels of development of the participating countries.
Countries like Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea and New Zealand are involved in ASEAN through the RCEP initiative. If Bangladesh joins the RCEP, it will be involved with these rich countries through the initiative and be benefited, another senior trade official said.
"Through joining RCEP, Bangladesh will ultimately be involved with ASEAN and enjoy various trade and economic benefits from the member-states of the regional body," he added.