Exports to India poised to hit $1.0b in 2011
Thursday, 20 August 2009
FE Report
Bangladesh exports to India would hit a billion dollar mark by 2011 as a raft of products are wooing consumers in the neighbours' north-eastern states, a business leader said Wednesday.
Abdul Matlub Ahmad, President of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, made the comment just a day before local manufacturers start exporting 400 million bricks to the Indian state of Tripura.
Commerce minister Faruk Khan and Tripura's commerce and industry minister Jitendra Choudhury would flag off the exports in a deal worth Tk 2.80 billion (US$40 million) --- the largest Bangladeshi single product shipment to India.
Ahmad said exports of Bangladeshi products such as processed foods, cement, plastics, glass sheet, dry fish, furniture and stone chips are poised to grow ten-fold in the next two years.
"Our exports to seven north-eastern Indian states would reach $1.0 billion mark in the year ending June 2011. New Bangladeshi products such as melamine and scrap steels are finding their way into the north-east," Ahmad said.
The chairman of Nitol-Niloy Group said brick export to India has opened up a new vista for Bangladeshi manufacturers and it would greatly help reduce the country's $3.0 billion trade imbalance with India.
India exports goods worth $3.3 billion to Bangladesh while Dhaka's exports to New Delhi never crossed $300 million.
Ahmad said brick exports could herald a new beginning. "Our bricks are better in quality and cheaper. We hope we will get a bigger slice of Indian market in the months ahead," the IBCCI president said.
Bangladesh exports to India would hit a billion dollar mark by 2011 as a raft of products are wooing consumers in the neighbours' north-eastern states, a business leader said Wednesday.
Abdul Matlub Ahmad, President of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, made the comment just a day before local manufacturers start exporting 400 million bricks to the Indian state of Tripura.
Commerce minister Faruk Khan and Tripura's commerce and industry minister Jitendra Choudhury would flag off the exports in a deal worth Tk 2.80 billion (US$40 million) --- the largest Bangladeshi single product shipment to India.
Ahmad said exports of Bangladeshi products such as processed foods, cement, plastics, glass sheet, dry fish, furniture and stone chips are poised to grow ten-fold in the next two years.
"Our exports to seven north-eastern Indian states would reach $1.0 billion mark in the year ending June 2011. New Bangladeshi products such as melamine and scrap steels are finding their way into the north-east," Ahmad said.
The chairman of Nitol-Niloy Group said brick export to India has opened up a new vista for Bangladeshi manufacturers and it would greatly help reduce the country's $3.0 billion trade imbalance with India.
India exports goods worth $3.3 billion to Bangladesh while Dhaka's exports to New Delhi never crossed $300 million.
Ahmad said brick exports could herald a new beginning. "Our bricks are better in quality and cheaper. We hope we will get a bigger slice of Indian market in the months ahead," the IBCCI president said.