President urges Indian trade bodies to reduce trade gap with Dhaka
Monday, 23 July 2007
President Iajuddin Ahmed Sunday urged the concerned authorities and business community to reduce Bangladesh's "huge trade gap" with India, reports BSS.
"Import trade of Bangladesh with India is huge compared to other countries . . . I will call upon the concerned authority as well as the trade bodies to adopt appropriate measures in order to reduce the gap by exporting more commodities to India," he said marking the launching of India Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IBCCI) in the city.
Commerce Adviser AB Mirza Md Azizul Islam, Indian State Minister for Commerce Jairam Ramesh, Acting High Commissioner of India in Dhaka Sarbajit Chakrabarty and business leaders of the two countries joined the function.
The president expected the newly-floated IBCCI to take proper initiatives to ensure a balance in the bilateral trades, and urged the Indian authorities to allocate a piece of land for the trade body and also issue a five-year multiple entry visa for the Bangladeshi businessmen.
He said, the balance of trade in bilateral business relations with different countries were largely in disfavour of Bangladesh though "We are working hard for narrowing down the import and export gap through expansion of our export market".
Iajuddin said, the wind of globalisation and free market economy, and formulation of some principles by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) exposed developing countries like Bangladesh to tremendous competition, both in regional and international arena.
"The economy of Bangladesh has been closely integrated with global economy, and with the passage of time this integration is becoming deeper . . . in this situation Bangladesh had no scope for lagging behind," the President said.
"We have to adopt appropriate measures so that we can protect and advance our economy for the interest of the nation", he added.
Commerce Adviser Mirza Aziz said, the government might formulate policies regarding businesses, but appropriate actions must come from the business community on the basis of mutual cooperation as Indian State Minister for Commerce Jairam Ramesh proposed a series of measures for balanced trade between the two countries.
He urged the IBCCI to take steps to address the imbalance issue effectively, and identify the causes and problems particularly of non-tariff barriers for the Bangladeshi exportable to India.
Ramesh offered to buy 8.0 million (80 lakh) Bangladeshi garment items defying its existing "sensitive list", adding he expected to sign a MOU to give effect to these imports by India before his departure for home Monday. "This could mean an additional earning between $50-70 million every year for Bangladesh," he said.
The Indian state minister said, they had already announced that it would advance the schedule for reducing its import duties to zero for the South Asian least developed countries from the original date of December 2008 to December 2007.
"This will benefit, the Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal, but most of all Bangladesh. This will mean that almost 86 per cent of Bangladesh's tariff lines will not attract any import duty by India," he said.
The Indian minister said, investment was the key to reduce Bangladesh's trade deficit with his country, and he urged Bangladesh to expedite the government decision on Tata's proposed $3.0 billion investment proposal.
"India's imports from Bangladesh can increase by at least $1.0 billion every year covering steel, urea and coal - which is almost five times of Bangladesh's exports to India last year," he said.
Ramesh, however, reiterated an earlier Indian proposal to allow it the transit rights to north-eastern part of his country, saying it would also offer Bangladesh a huge market access to the backward Indian region.
"India would like to access the new mooring terminal at Chittagong Port. Our request has been pending for over two years now. This, of course, will be a commercial transaction, but I believe that by granting us permission, you will be ensuring the full utilisation of the container handling capacity created," he said.
Bangladesh's adviser assured Ramesh that his proposals would "receive serious consideration" of the Caretaker Government.
IBCCI President Matlub Ahmed chaired the inaugural function.
"Import trade of Bangladesh with India is huge compared to other countries . . . I will call upon the concerned authority as well as the trade bodies to adopt appropriate measures in order to reduce the gap by exporting more commodities to India," he said marking the launching of India Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IBCCI) in the city.
Commerce Adviser AB Mirza Md Azizul Islam, Indian State Minister for Commerce Jairam Ramesh, Acting High Commissioner of India in Dhaka Sarbajit Chakrabarty and business leaders of the two countries joined the function.
The president expected the newly-floated IBCCI to take proper initiatives to ensure a balance in the bilateral trades, and urged the Indian authorities to allocate a piece of land for the trade body and also issue a five-year multiple entry visa for the Bangladeshi businessmen.
He said, the balance of trade in bilateral business relations with different countries were largely in disfavour of Bangladesh though "We are working hard for narrowing down the import and export gap through expansion of our export market".
Iajuddin said, the wind of globalisation and free market economy, and formulation of some principles by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) exposed developing countries like Bangladesh to tremendous competition, both in regional and international arena.
"The economy of Bangladesh has been closely integrated with global economy, and with the passage of time this integration is becoming deeper . . . in this situation Bangladesh had no scope for lagging behind," the President said.
"We have to adopt appropriate measures so that we can protect and advance our economy for the interest of the nation", he added.
Commerce Adviser Mirza Aziz said, the government might formulate policies regarding businesses, but appropriate actions must come from the business community on the basis of mutual cooperation as Indian State Minister for Commerce Jairam Ramesh proposed a series of measures for balanced trade between the two countries.
He urged the IBCCI to take steps to address the imbalance issue effectively, and identify the causes and problems particularly of non-tariff barriers for the Bangladeshi exportable to India.
Ramesh offered to buy 8.0 million (80 lakh) Bangladeshi garment items defying its existing "sensitive list", adding he expected to sign a MOU to give effect to these imports by India before his departure for home Monday. "This could mean an additional earning between $50-70 million every year for Bangladesh," he said.
The Indian state minister said, they had already announced that it would advance the schedule for reducing its import duties to zero for the South Asian least developed countries from the original date of December 2008 to December 2007.
"This will benefit, the Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal, but most of all Bangladesh. This will mean that almost 86 per cent of Bangladesh's tariff lines will not attract any import duty by India," he said.
The Indian minister said, investment was the key to reduce Bangladesh's trade deficit with his country, and he urged Bangladesh to expedite the government decision on Tata's proposed $3.0 billion investment proposal.
"India's imports from Bangladesh can increase by at least $1.0 billion every year covering steel, urea and coal - which is almost five times of Bangladesh's exports to India last year," he said.
Ramesh, however, reiterated an earlier Indian proposal to allow it the transit rights to north-eastern part of his country, saying it would also offer Bangladesh a huge market access to the backward Indian region.
"India would like to access the new mooring terminal at Chittagong Port. Our request has been pending for over two years now. This, of course, will be a commercial transaction, but I believe that by granting us permission, you will be ensuring the full utilisation of the container handling capacity created," he said.
Bangladesh's adviser assured Ramesh that his proposals would "receive serious consideration" of the Caretaker Government.
IBCCI President Matlub Ahmed chaired the inaugural function.