The government has decided to open a good number of commercial wings in seven important countries with a view to boosting export earnings and further strengthening bilateral ties, officials said.
The countries are Sweden, Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia, Singapore and China (Kunming), according to the commerce ministry sources.
A meeting was held in this connection among secretaries of ministries of commerce, foreign, expatriates' welfare and overseas employment and industries. Senior officials dealing with export and import trade were also present. A committee has been formed for supervising overall activities of. Proposed commercial wings, Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, senior secretary of the ministry of commerce (MoC) told the FE. Hedayetullah Al Mamoon, is the president of the committee. Two additional secretaries have also been included in the committee, sources said.
On the other hand, another committee has also been formed to identify problems of the wings through arranging meetings with country's stakeholders, he said.
"We are now monitoring the activities of the existing commercial wings and asking the officials of the wings to promote country's export earnings," Mr. Mamoon said.
"Some foreign ministry officials have also been assigned to assess where commercial wings should continue to function or close down."
A large number of Bangladeshi products are being exported to Indonesia, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, South Africa and Kunming. Export earnings from those countries are growing significantly every year. But there are no commercial wings in those countries.
"If the move becomes successful, Bangladesh's export earning from all those seven countries will increase and it will help reduce the huge trade imbalance," a commerce ministry source said.
According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) statistics, Bangladesh exported goods worth US$ 421.743 million, US$ 856.197 million, US$ 57.032 million, US$ 56.527 million and US$ 135.862 million to Sweden, Turkey, South Africa, Indonesia, and Singapore respectively in the last fiscal year.
The earnings were US$ 403.992 million, US$ 637.814 million, US$ 65.742 million, US$ 50.822 million and US$ 155.999 million from those countries respectively in the fiscal year 2012-13, the EPB data showed.
Mr. Mamoon also said designation of commercial counsellors would be upgraded because of their higher responsibilities.
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