Policy committee meeting Tuesday

The government is going to take initiatives to further expedite activities of the missions abroad to boost the country's export earnings, officials said.
As part of the move, a meeting of the policy formulating committee will be held on Tuesday. Committee convener and senior secretary of Ministry of Commerce (MoC) Hedayetullah Al Mamoon will preside over the meeting.
Representatives from the ministries of finance, foreign affairs, agriculture, industries, and expatriates' welfare and overseas employment, and National Board of Revenue will attend the meeting. Senior officials dealing with export and import trade will also be present.
"The meeting will be held for addressing problems of the missions abroad to increase the country's export earnings. We will take necessary steps to resolve the existing problems in the sector," Mr Mamoon told the FE on Friday.
"We are now monitoring the missions' activities, and asking the officials to enhance the country's export earnings."
"We are trying our best to open commercial wings in Turkey, South Africa, China (Kunming) and some other destinations soon," he added.
A high official at MoC said the government aims to almost double exports to US$ 50 billion by 2018, and will take all necessary steps in this regard.  
He said: "We are determined to remain one of the top countries in terms of ease of doing business by providing more support to the country's businesses to export their goods and services."
Meanwhile, sources concerned said performance of most of the missions in fulfilling their respective export earning target is unsatisfactory. According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data, 27 out of 53 Bangladesh missions abroad have failed to achieve their set export targets during the first seven months of the current fiscal year (FY), 2014-15.
Currently, Bangladesh has 19 commercial wings in 17 countries, with two each in the US and India. The commercial wing in Iran would be shut down, as the country is facing difficulties in continuing trade-related activities due to the US-imposed sanction on it, said MoC officials.
Bangladesh's export earning during July-January period of this FY was over $17,799 million. The amount is 2.06 per cent higher than that of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. But it is 4.19 per cent lower than the strategic target of over $18,578 million, the data showed.
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