MCCI, IGSC to work towards boosting Indo-Bangla trade

The Indo Global SME Chamber (IGSC) of India and the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), Dhaka have agreed to work together towards enhancing bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh.

They also emphasized the need for reducing barriers to movement of goods and people between the two countries.

Leaders of both the chambers discussed the bilateral trade issues when a delegation of IGSC visited the Motijheel office of the MCCI on Tuesday, says a press release.

The IGSC delegation was led by its Chairman Dr. Bharat Kulkarni. The other member of the delegation was Vice President Dr. Niraj Vijayvergiya.

IGSC is a Chamber of Commerce involved in the development of international trade and investments in India. It is working to define standard guidelines and practices for sustainable organic agricultural sector. The purpose of this visit was to explore collaboration opportunities with key stakeholders from Bangladesh's textile sector, where IGSC wanted to promote sustainable agricultural standards.

During the meeting, MCCI President Saiful Islam pointed out that the CMSMEs in Bangladesh account for 25 per cent of the GDP.

He highlighted Bangladesh's performance amid the pandemic and described how it was on course to achieving $40 billion export during the current fiscal year.

Mentioning the trade gap between Bangladesh and India, Mr Islam emphasized the need to explore opportunities that could reduce the gap.

He said agro-based processing was an area where India and Bangladesh could work together.

He pointed out that once imported from India, cotton undergoes value addition in Bangladesh and the final product is exported to India. Still, it faces non-tariff barriers, which was not desirable, he added.

Mr Islam emphasized the need for improving overall connectivity, and stated how the established riverine connectivity could be fully utilized.

He requested the IGSC to send a detailed proposal to the MCCI so that the Chamber secretariat could facilitate matchmaking between IGSC and Bangladeshi businesses, especially from the RMG, leather, and IT sectors.

MCCI Vice-President Habibullah N Karim said that if IGSC could play a role in the value chain integration between India and Bangladesh, there could be a room for some collaborations, which MCCI could facilitate.

IGSC Chairman Dr. Bharat Kulkarni praised Bangladesh's economic transformation during the last few decades and agreed that both countries should take advantage of their demographic dividends.

He emphasized the possibility of bilateral movement of goods and people between India and Bangladesh with minimal constraints.

The chairman also assured of considering the suggestions of MCCI to advance collaborations.