Economic Reporter :
Bangladesh will ‘request’ Thailand to allow some more specific Bangladeshi products’ duty-free-quota-free (DFQF) market access to reduce the trade gap between the two countries.
Bangladesh will also “propose to establish special economic zone” in Bangladesh to attract Thai investment in Bangladesh in a bulk volume.
These issues, among others of mutual interests, will be raised at the fourth Joint Trade Committee (JTC) meeting that begins a city hotel on Wednesday, a Commerce Ministry senior official told on Monday.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed and his Thai counterpart Apiradi Tantraporn will lead their respective sides respectively at the minister-level meeting to be held at 2:30pm on Thursday, said the official.
Before the minister-level meeting, Commerce Secretary Shubhashish Bose and Thai Department of Trade Negotiations Director General Boonyarit Kalayanamit will review on Wednesday the decisions taken by the two countries so far.
The Thai Minister is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka at 12:10pm on Thursday to join the minister-level meeting, another senior official told.
A Commerce Ministry official said the third JTC meeting was held in Bangkok, Thailand in 2013.
Officials said both sides are willing to strengthen trade and investment relations and to that end a high-level business delegation from Thailand will also attend the meeting.
“We’ll encourage Thai investors to invest in prospective areas in Bangladesh,” said the official.
At the secretary-level meeting, both sides will review progress made so far since the last JTC meeting, he said adding that both sides will discuss ways to explore new areas of cooperation.
Issues related to agriculture, fisheries, food processing and cooperation in the areas of establishing small and medium industries will come up broadly at the meeting, the official said.
The government has prepared a fresh list of potential products as per the recommendations came from businesspeople and others that will be shared with the Thai side.
Earlier, the government got some ideas about the potential products having export market in Thailand from the businesspeople from both sides, officials said.
Thailand provides duty-free-quota-free (DFQF) market access to nearly 5,000 Bangladeshi products, many of which are hardly exported.
Officials said both the sides are working to further strengthen the trade ties and double the bilateral trade volume between the two countries which is now around US$ 900 million.
Bangladesh and Thailand signed trade agreement on August 22, 1997 and formed joint chambers of commerce to promote bilateral trade between the two countries.
