As India is keen to reduce trade gap with Bangladesh, it wants to invest more here in a bid to increase Bangladesh’s export to India.
For this purpose, India wants to invest more in the country’s various sectors including power, railways, infrastructure development, garments and ICT.
The visiting delegation of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Abdul Matlub Ahmad addresses a press conference titled ‘Meeting of IBCCI Members with Visiting CII Delegation’ at Nitol-Niloy Centre in the capital on Sunday. Confederation of Indian Industry’s eastern region chairman Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Pran-RFL Group chairman Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, IFAD Group managing director Taskin Ahmed is also seen in the picture. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) led by its chairman (CII eastern region) Chandra Shekhar Ghosh disclosed this at a discussion on ‘Meeting of IBCCI Members with Visiting CII Delegation’ organized by India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IBCCI) in the capital on Sunday.
Chandra Shekhar Ghosh said, “In the coming days, bilateral trade between Bangladesh and India will increase gradually. As railway connectivity is increasing in Bangladesh, we have the opportunity to manufacture railway wagon in Bangladesh. Besides, we can exchange our skill and expertise. We have found vast prospects to work in energy, building construction, port connectivity, inland waterways, construction equipment’s and others.”
“In the economic zones, we will be able to set up many export-oriented factories, which will help to create employment opportunity and at the same time export earnings will increase”, he added.
About the land connectivity he said, “Goods are being carried to Singapore Port through Chittagong Port, which increases the cost. If we can connect Chittagong Port to Kolkata, this will help us to minimize cost.”
While talking about both countries' food habits, they identified the bakery industry is one of the rising industries in Bangladesh. Chandra Shekhar Ghos to this regard said, “As we are neighboring countries and we have similarity in food habit, we think bakery can be another sector which has huge potentials in the coming days”.
About the trade deficit, IBCCI president Abdul Matlub Ahmed said, “If we look back, we can see our volume of export to India is increasing gradually and now stood at almost 10 billion. To increase more export, many branded companies are coming to Bangladesh, we urged them to re-export their manufactured product to India. This will help to increase the export”.
Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, chairman of Pran-RFL Group said, “The more bilateral relation between two countries increases, the more trade will grow. We need more skilled and expertise, which Indians can offer us. And in the future, as the government is keen to increase railway connectivity, we want to set up a railway wagon plant in the country, where our neighboring countries can contribute a lot”.
About the land ports of two counties Ahsan Khan Chowdhury further said, “If we can ensure smooth operation and connectivity between land ports to river ports, it will open a new horizon to boost the business of both countries.
Taskin Ahmed, managing director of IFAD Group said, “Soon our country will be a hub for manufacturing. We are therefore ready to take this opportunity to boost our trade to India.”
According to a recent World Bank report, Bangladesh has not been able to take advantage of India’s growing import market. Indian imports exceeded US$400 billion in 2018. India is importing many items from the global market. Bangladesh is also exporting similar items to the global market but not to India. Policymakers must remove the obstacles that impede higher bilateral trade flows through appropriate policies.
