WB to help BD expand its trade: Tofail

The World Bank (WB) wants to help Bangladesh expand its trade and diversify products, Tofail Ahmed, commerce minister said on Monday.

There is close cooperation between the commerce ministry and the WB. The country director for Bangladesh has assured that the international lender will help the ministry increase the country's trade and also will work in product diversification projects in future, Tofail Ahmed told reporters after exchanging views with Johannes Zutt, WB Country Director for Bangladesh at the ministry.

"The WB has told me that country's leather industry has a vast potential. So, they want to cooperate for taking ahead the leather, medicine, ship building and light engineering sectors in the coming days. The long and short of it, the lender wants to extend their cooperation in many sectors of our country," Tofail Ahmed added.

"Some people talk against the country's RMG sector so that the sector does not progress in future. There are many competitor countries against our apparel sector. Those countries want to damage our RMG's goodwill to increase their share in global apparel market. We have projected that export of country's readymade garment (RMG) items will reach some US$ 50.0 billion in 2021, Tofail Ahmed said.

Johannes Zutt said Bangladesh is a competitive country especially in RMG. Besides, the Bangladeshi companies are showing innovation and capacity and have gained market shares in global perspective in respect of pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding, leather goods, light engineering and a number of other goods.  

He said about 2 million jobs have to be created per year for poverty reduction from the country.

"We discussed with commerce minister what we can do for promoting pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding, leather goods, light engineering including ICT in Bangladesh," he said.

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