BD-Myanmar JTC meet in Nay Pyi Taw in Jan

The Joint Trade Commission (JTC) meeting of Bangladesh and Myanmar will be held in January next to strengthen bilateral trade between the two countries, a high official said.

With this end in view an inter-ministerial meeting will be held soon to finalise the topics for the upcoming JTC meeting.

"We will sit in an inter-ministerial meeting shortly to finalise the issues to be discussed in the meeting in Nay Pyi Taw," Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed told the FE Friday.

The previous JTC meeting was held in Dhaka last year. In that meeting both the countries agreed to increase bilateral trade by strengthening border transactions.

"We will discuss border trade, minimising the trade gap between the countries, facilitation and promotion of trade of agricultural products, food grains and other products under private sector initiative," the commerce secretary said.

The trade between the two neighbouring countries is expected to increase to US$ 500 million from $ 160 million now.

In the last meeting the Myanmar side proposed to Bangladesh to invest in agriculture in their country (Myanmar) as it has a lot of suitable land for this purpose.

The Myanmar government also said they are ready to give long-term lease of land to Bangladeshi entrepreneurs for agricultural purposes from which both the countries would benefit.

Officials of both the countries also discussed how to complete border transactions through the Asian Clearing Union payment system.

Bangladeshi importers now settle their payments for bulk shipments through bank drafts issued by foreign banks to a third country.

The officials discussed the potential for setting up wholesale border markets at Bangladesh's Teknaf and Myanmar's Maungdaw, a border town.

The two countries formed a joint committee on coastal shipping. During the upcoming meeting the committee will identify the commercial shipping routes, identify the ports of call and fix the tariff for shipping lines between the two countries.

Bilateral trade balance has been heavily tilted in favour of Myanmar over the years.

The bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Myanmar stood at $ 79 million in fiscal year (FY) 2011-12. Bangladesh exported goods worth $ 13.45 million to Myanmar while imported goods worth $ 65.55 million from that country during the fiscal year.