The government is set to open commercial wings in five important countries soon with a view to boosting export earnings and further strengthening bilateral ties.
The countries are China, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa and Indonesia, according to the commerce ministry sources concerned.
But the finance ministry gave consent only to open commercial wing in Kunming of China.
A recent meeting discussed the issues elaborately. Senior officials dealing with export and import trade were present in the meeting.
The ministry of public administration gave consent to open commercial wings in Istanbul (Turkey), Kunming (China) and Pretoria (South Africa).
However, processing is underway to take consent from the foreign ministry for opening commercial wings in Indonesia and Brazil.
"We are now monitoring the activities of the existing commercial wings and asking the officials of the wings to promote country's export earnings," a senior official of the commerce ministry said.
A large number of Bangladeshi products are being exported to Indonesia, Kunming, Turkey, South Africa and Brazil. Export earnings from those countries are growing significantly every year. But there are no commercial wings in those countries/ regions.
"If the move becomes successful, Bangladesh's export earnings from all those five countries will increase many fold and it will help reduce the huge trade imbalance," a commerce ministry source said.
According to available statistics, Bangladesh exported goods worth US$ 800 million to China in fiscal 2016-17.
There is no specific data on Bangladesh's trade balances with Brazil, Turkey, South Africa and Indonesia, sources concerned said.
Bangladesh earned US$ 36.66 billion in foreign exchange in the FY 2017-18.
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