Trade will be a potential key driver of Bangladesh-India friendship in the future with focus on product value addition, an Indian envoy said.

He said closer integration of transportation systems, greater connectivity, power and energy sector cooperation, including renewable energy; blue economy cooperation and people-to-people connectivity and health sector cooperation can bring about a win-win situation for the two countries.  

“We should look at trade and a whole new framework. I believe trade will be potentially a key driver of our friendship in the future,” Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram Kumar Doraiswami said, according to a UNB report.

Delivering a keynote at a symposium titled ‘Bangladesh-India Relations: Prognosis for the Future’, Doraiswamy, however, cautioned that the environment will remain an important issue to look at.

Doraiswami laid emphasis on sectors like food production, readymade garments (RMG) and textile in which Bangladesh could provide India with a key base for value addition.

Doraiswami there is a need for the two countries to do much on the large mangrove forest Sundarbans which is a part of both countries. “I think the environment is an important area for us to look at.”

He said the challenge before the neighbours is to transform the geographical compulsions into mutual benefits and for Bangladesh in particular, to evolve a pattern, in which it can live and conquer with but distinct from its powerful neighbours.

An array of experts from Bangladesh and India took part in the symposium.

He said while both countries would gain from closer integration of the transportation system, Bangladesh will be benefitted more.

Bangladesh’s economy is growing faster than the economy of surrounding Indian states and it has the capacity to provide many of the services and goods that Indian states use.

He said connectivity needs to be seen as a regional and sub-regional issue, not just a bilateral one, the UNB report said,

(SAM)