DCCI urges UK to import more from Bangladesh

Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) on Sunday urged the United Kingdom (UK) to import more from Bangladesh.
The trade body made the appeal during a bilateral meeting between DCCI President Ashraf Ahmed and British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Sarah Cooke at DCCI Gulshan Centre in the capital.
DCCI president Ashraf Ahmed said over 94 per cent of export from Bangladesh to the UK concentrated on ready-made garments (RMG) products (USD 5.03 billion). Other than RMG products, few more items are also being exported to the UK, but their volume is not up to the expected level.
He said the UK is the 3rd largest export destination and 26th largest import source of Bangladesh and that the total bilateral trade between the two countries reached US$ 5.73 billion in fiscal year 2022-2023.
During the FY 2022-2023, export from Bangladesh to UK was $ 5.31 billion and total import from the UK was $ 415.32 million.
He also said that the UK is the second largest foreign investment source for Bangladesh, followed by USA.
"The potential of economic partnership between the UK and Bangladesh is very bright, especially in the fields of finance, healthcare, Fin-tech, BPO, BPS, tourism, and education sectors," said the DCCI president.
Moreover, the UK can also transfer technical know-how, innovation and skills in ICT, architecture and healthcare sectors through joint venture partnership, he said, adding that both Bangladesh and the UK need to initiate and expand discussions for framing agreements at government-to-government (G2G) level to boost bilateral trade and investment during the post LDC era.
He also said bilateral discussions need to reflect new priorities arising from Bangladesh's economic transition.
The DCCI president further said that the investments from the UK into Bangladesh needs new focus as does private sector-to-private sector connectivity.
British High Commissioner Sarah Cooke said Bangladesh has undergone a lot of changes in the last decade and its economy also advanced a lot.
She said the UK is interested to work with Bangladesh regarding economic progress and climate change issues.
She also said that UK will extend its possible support to Bangladesh in successful graduation from the LDC to middle-income country status.
"But after the LDC graduation, to keep export market safe, Bangladesh needs to diversify its exportable items other than RMG products," she said.
She hoped that the both way trade and export between the UK and Bangladesh will be accelerated in the future.
Besides, the tax-GDP ratio of Bangladesh should be increased, she said.
She said that agriculture, sea food (shrimp), leather goods, light engineering especially bicycle and RMG have huge potential for Bangladeshi exporters in the UK market.
She also stressed the need for producing quality products having international standard.
In order to attract more FDI, she suggested that Bangladesh needs to work more on the policy reforms, sustainable and predictable policy regime, intellectual property right (IPR), alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and repatriation of profit related issues.
The British envoy invited Bangladeshi business delegations to the UK to enhance better connectivity.
DCCI Vice President Md Junaed Ibna Ali and Members of the Board of Directors were also present at the meeting.

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