KARACHI, Nov 25: Bangladesh Commerce Minister Air Marshal (Retd) Altaf Hussain Chaudhry has said that his country will give top priority for promoting bilateral trade with Pakistan.
During his luncheon meeting with members of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) at Federation House, here on Wednesday, the visiting minister also invited Pakistani businessmen to hold single country exhibition in Bangladesh and promised to send a high profile trade delegation from his country to Pakistan.
He said Dhaka was very keen to collaborate in joint international marketing of several products. It had potential avenues for putting up industrial units as sole enterprises as well as joint ventures.
FPCCI President Riaz Ahmed Tata in his welcome address said it was his conviction that Bangladesh and Pakistan being important members of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) could play a very significant role in bringing Saarc at par with other trading blocs of the world.
"Saarc should be made a vibrant and powerful economic bloc through effective implementation of SAFTA that was signed at the Saarc Summit in January this year," he stressed.
Mr Tata said both the countries had common history, culture and religion, but the bilateral trade was very measured. For the last five years, annual bilateral trade is stagnant at $150 million, which is less than one per cent of our total trade.
The share of Pakistan's exports in the total imports of Bangladesh was only 1.6 per cent while the share of exports of Bangladesh in Pakistan's imports was less than one per cent.
The FPCCI chief said being representative of the private sector of Pakistan, he would strongly support and welcome the earliest signing of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Bangladesh.
In a separate meeting with members of SITE Association of Industry (SIA) here on Wednesday, the Bangladesh commerce minister offered all help to Pakistanis especially the business community for resolving the problems, if any, they were facing in his country.
"Just walk in my office there. I would extend you all possible support. I have already got solved 90 per cent problems of our Pakistanis brothers related to property they had left behind at the time of partition of Pakistan in 1970," he claimed.
He invited Pakistani businessmen to set up industries in Bangladesh especially in textile sector. "Although 74 per cent of our $7.4 billion export is contributed only by garments sector, we need technical support from outside in weaving and dying fields." This provides best opportunity for Pakistani entrepreneurs to enter into joint ventures or set up sole industrial units in Bangladesh, he added. -APP