Bangladesh intends to deepen its political, economic and cultural ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said this recently while he was addressing the 3rd ASEAN Flag Raising Ceremony organized by ASEAN Dhaka Committee (ADC) at the Indonesian embassy in Dhaka marking the 49th founding anniversary of ASEAN. Bangladesh is a dialogue partner of the association now. ADC was set-up in 2013 with an aim to deepen relations between ASEAN and Bangladesh. It's true that institutionalization of this relationship in 2013 can work as a springboard to launch fresh initiatives alongside the existing links to strengthen it further. However, activism is essential to make this relatively new platform, ADC, effective.
The ASEAN region is the closest one to Bangladesh outside South Asia. The ASEAN countries are historically, culturally and social fabric wise much closer to Bangladesh than those in other Asian regions. Their growth wonders of past few decades are a natural models for Bangladesh. Bangladesh being located in the eastern sub-region of the SAARC region and having both land and maritime openings to the ASEAN region, can be the linchpin between the two historical regions. Also it seems that apart from exporting unskilled or semi-skilled labour to that region Bangladesh hasn't explored the avenues of other benefits.
Opportunities offered by that region merits further exploration of possibilities to foster investment, trade flow and cultural exchanges. Most important of all these is scope for huge export of manpower in the region from Bangladesh. Hence , just expressing good intent won't suffice. We hope the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and other govt ministries and departments and also the business community of Dhaka would undertake collective initiatives to make all these good intensions work. MOFA has a moral obligation take lead and do some hard work in this.
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