Nicola Watkinson Australia is interested to further enhance its trade and investments in Bangladesh to the mutual benefit of the two countries, a senior Australian trade official has said.
Australian entrepreneurs are eager to explore business opportunities in Bangladesh in areas like food, agriculture products, technology transfer, infrastructure, mining and energy.
"Through the Australia Unlimited branding of Austrade, Australian companies look for appropriate local partners particularly in areas like food and agriculture business," said Ms Nicola Watkinson, senior trade and investment commissioner, Australian Trade Commission (Austrade)-South Asia, in an exclusive interview with the FE recently.
"They are increasingly being interested in infrastructure and energy area where we think has some good room to grow," she added.
Ms Watkinson, who is based in New Delhi, was on a visit to Dhaka from January 30 to February 1 to attend the Australia Day reception and Australian Food Promotion at the Australian High Commission. She is responsible for developing trade, investment and education links between Australia and South Asia.
Ms Watkinson said the focus of Austrade is to help Australian businesses set up business here, strengthen economic ties by both bringing in Australian companies who can partner with local businesses, some of whom can serve the local market here, and occasionally partner together to develop capability to export to a third market or back into Australia.
"We have a local team on the ground here, who understand the market, network with business communities, industry associations and chambers to find appropriate partner," said the Austrade official.
Ms Watkinson said there were many Australian franchises operating in South Asia. In Bangladesh the coffee chain Gloria Jean's has partnered with Navana Group and is planning to open many more stores in future.
"In setting up franchise, Australia has every support in place so that anyone can expect the same kind of food in Bangladesh," she added.
When asked about some of the successful Australian ventures in Bangladesh, Ms Watson said Gloria Jean's Coffee, Santos investment in offshore gas fields, were some of the success stories, apart from the presence of packaged food brands like Ballantyne Butter, Harvey Fresh, Country Fresh Juice and Milk, Lowan, Sanitarium breakfast cereals, Paul's Milk, Lemnos cheese, milk powder and many more in the local superstores. Besides, Bangladeshi star hotels use Australian meat, lamb, salmon, cheese, butter and many other products because of their high quality.
There was potential to work in partnership with Bangladeshi farmers and agri business to support greater local production. Also there was the prospect for working on agriculture research by Australian institutes and Bangladesh agriculture research institutes, other public and private institutes, said Ms Watkinson.
"There is huge scope to support the Bangladeshi dairy sector, through which Bangladesh can increase its yield in dairy production and export those," she added.
Referring to Australia as a major cotton exporting country, she said cotton export was expected to accelerate in the years to come to support Bangladesh's textile and garments sector. Also Australia could be a good source of wool in near future for sweater manufacturing in Bangladesh.
"As Australia is a major coal and LNG source and Bangladesh has some ambitious plans to set up power plants, Australia can be a reliable supplier of thermal coal, LNG and can help construct the power plants and port terminals as it has specialty in these areas," she noted about the scope of cooperation in the energy sector.
Being a global leader of education destinations, Australia was interested to establish linkages between Australian and Bangladeshi education institutions on student and faculty exchange programmes, articulation arrangements, curriculum development and joint research programmes. Besides, Australian educational institutions wanted to train Bangladeshi people in disciplines such as hospitality, construction, oil and gas in partnership with the local institutions with a special focus on vocational training, she said.
Regarding investment plans on hospitality, hotel and agro-based industries, Ms Watkinson said Australia has particular specialty in the services sector. Traditionally the country does not have a big manufacturing base and the service sector constitutes 80 per cent of the total economy.
"I think the opportunity for import substitution is the bigger market than Australia. Maybe, it is having the Australian expertise come here to Bangladesh and work alongside the local partners to create products to export to bigger neighbours, particularly in dairy and agriculture sectors" said Ms Watkinson.
Regarding cooperation in the area of food safety, she said the issue was important to all and Australia was recognised for its green and clean credentials. Bangladesh could follow what kind of systems Australia had put in place to ensure quality of food and products.
The bilateral trade between Australia and Bangladesh reached the record high of $991 million in the fiscal year 2012-13. The volume of trade is expected to reach $ 1.0 billion in the current fiscal. Bangladesh is the second largest trading partner of Australia in South Asia.
The exports from Australia to Bangladesh stood at $ 573 million in the last fiscal year and exports from Bangladesh to Australia were at $ 419 million. The exports from Australia are growing at the rate of 17 per cent rate year-on-year while Bangladesh's exports to the country are increasing at the rate of 30 per cent rate.
Major Australian exports to Bangladesh include chickpeas, wheat, horticulture, fertilizers, cotton, oil seeds and oleaginous fruits.
Major exports to Australia from Bangladesh include clothing, textiles and readymade garments. To reduce the present trade gap Bangladesh can export products like fish, ceramic ware and jute goods.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
