December 30, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 6, 1424

DHAKA, Dec 29: The government of Bangladesh has recently decided in principle to solidify its commitment to the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), while it is unenthusiastic about the proposed bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with its South Asian neighbours, report a couple of Dhaka based national dailies on Sunday.

According to the reports, the government stance on the two issues came up following a series of high-level meetings on Saturday.

Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia at a ‘exclusive’ meeting with six of her senior colleagues in the Cabinet — Finance and Planning Minister M. Saifur Rahman, LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Agriculture Minister M.K. Anwar, Commerce Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan — discussed both the issues.

“We discussed the SAFTA and favoured an effective role of Bangladesh on the issue,” one of the ministers reportedly told the press. “But the government might prefer to adopt a ‘wait-and-see’ policy on whether to agree to sign FTAs with the neighbours, particularly India,” another meeting source was quoted to have said.

Earlier in the day, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, headed by Finance Minister M. Saifur Rahman, at a meeting “failed” to reach any concrete stance on taking decision on how and whether to proceed with the FTA talks with India in particular and with Pakistan and Sri Lanka in general.

However, apart from the ongoing SAFTA talks at the Saarc-level, Dhaka is scheduled to enter the second round of negotiations with New Delhi, Islamabad and Colombo on signing the respective FTAs.

As regards, FTA with India, Dhaka would expect reciprocity from New Delhi for going ahead with the move. “A positive announcement on the FTA with India is likely in the prospective tete-a-tete between Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and her Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee during the upcoming Saarc summit in Islamabad, should New Delhi show reciprocal attitude towards Dhaka,” sources in the Prime Minister’s Office in Dhaka reportedly hinted.