Bangladesh's economic success - from a "basket case" to a "bull case" - and hailed around the world, is being recognised by neighbour India as Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Vikram K Doraiswami met FBCCI President Mohammad Jashmin Uddin and sought the cooperation of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) to boost bilateral trade between the countries. 

India wants to improve trade and investment relations with Bangladesh’s expanding economy in the areas of logistics, food processing, automobiles, and garments, Doraiawami conveyed to the FBCCI, which said that the development of the logistics sector was its prime agenda. 

"The apex trade body is working to submit a 12-year plan to the government for the development of the logistics," Jasmine Uddin was quoted as saying by The Daily Star. He said India could be a major supplier of yarn and cotton to the garment industry, one of the country’s top export-oriented sectors, in the near future. 

This year Bangladesh’s exports to India are set to cross $2 billion from $1 billion in 2018-19, he said, as the bilateral trade last year records a whopping 94 percent growth. In 2019-20, the bilateral trade was over $9.5 billion. 

The FBCCI chief said Indian companies investing in Bangladesh were all doing great. Therefore, the investment of other Indian entrepreneurs in Bangladesh has a huge potential to be profitable, he added.

Calling for the development of infrastructure in the Indian land ports to boost bilateral trade, he said poor infrastructure was hampering the bilateral trade as many products could not be exported from Bangladesh due to lack of proper facilities at Indian ports.

The reputed US business daily Wall Street Journal had in an article last year titled 'Bangladesh is becoming South Asia’s economic bull case,' said Bangladesh's exports had risen by around 80 percent in US dollar terms in the past decade through the country's booming garment industry and said the country provides the world with another example that export-led growth has the best modern-day track record of moving countries from very low-income levels into middle-income status [ Read more ]

(SAM)