Bangladesh and Sweden have the potential to increase bilateral trade and investment between the two countries further as the Nordic country has already offered a duty and quota-free market access for all products except arms.
"There is scope for expanding trade and investment between the two countries," said Swedish Ambassador to Bangladesh Johan Frisell while addressing a country lecture on 'Sweden, Europe and Asia' on Monday.
The Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) organised the 11th lecture as part of its country lecture series at its auditorium on Monday. The BIISS introduced the lecture series aiming at better understanding with friendly countries with which Bangladesh has significant bilateral relations.
The Swedish envoy in his lecture appreciated Bangladesh's success in socioeconomic fields and expressed his willingness to extend strategic supports to help Bangladesh become a middle-income country by the year 2021.
"We would try to continue our assistance for further development of Bangladesh," he said.
Dwelling on various aspects of the Swedish foreign policy, the envoy said his country wants to develop trade relations with Asian countries like China, Japan, Korea, India and especially with Bangladesh.
He said Bangladesh has a huge scope in the Scandinavian countries to expand its business. Besides readymade garments (RMG), Bangladesh can export frozen foods, jute and jute goods, leather products and ceramics.
Similarly, he said Swedish entrepreneurs are interested to invest in Bangladesh's readymade garments, ceramics, Information Technology and pharmaceutical sectors.
The Swedish ambassador, however, urged the government to remove trade barriers.
"We are offering duty and quota-free market access, but facing some problems while exporting to your country," said the envoy urging the government to liberalise the economy, reduce tariff as well as bureaucratic hassles.
The trade volume between the two countries amounted to about US$ 500 million, mostly in favour of Bangladesh. Bangladesh exports merchandise worth about US$ 422 million to Sweden in last fiscal (2013-14) as against import of goods worth about US$ 70 million.
The ambassador said, Sweden needs immigrants for its development work and Bangladesh could avail the opportunity. But the immigrants must have to be well mannered and integrated with their society having the mentality of going back to their own countries.
According to the ambassador, some 12,000 Bangladeshis are living in Sweden at present.
Regarding Rohingya refugees, the Sweden ambassador, whose country received a large number of refugees from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, said that Myanmar should create a congenial environment to receive its residents, now living in Bangladesh, as settling Rohingya refugees to a third country is not a good option for so many refugees.
Held at the BIISS auditorium, the conference was addressed among others by BIISS Director General AKM Abdur Rahman. BIISS Board of Governors' Chairman Ambassador Munshi Faiz Ahmad presided over the meeting which was attended by foreign policy experts, diplomats, researchers and former bureaucrats.
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