Leaders of India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IBCCI) welcomed India's new High Commissioner in Bangladesh Riva Ganguly Das before a views-exchange meeting in the city on Wednesday. -Motafizur Rahman/AA
Exports of Bangladeshi goods to India have recently crossed the milestone of one billion dollars. It is certainly an achievement for Bangladesh. Jahangir Bin Alam, Secretary and CEO of the India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IBCCI) yesterday told The Asian Age that it is a great success for Bangladesh. "We hope our exports to India will reach 3 billion dollars during this government's tenure," he added.
Jahangir Bin Alam also said that the export limit will grow further in the near future if all the necessary policies are implemented properly. However, the fact is also true that India exports goods worth more than 9 billion dollars to Bangladesh.
When asked about the trade deficit between Bangladesh and India, he noted that Bangladeshi businessmen import raw materials, machines, etc., at a cheaper rate from India than from Europe or other destinations.
Bangladesh and India have had good trade cooperation owing to a number of reasons, including the geographical location of the two countries, he further said. Leading figures of the IBCCI enlightened India's new High Commissioner in Bangladesh on the volume of Bangladeshi goods exported to India on Wednesday.
The IBCCI board members revealed such facts at a views exchange meeting between them and Riva Ganguly Das, the new Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh, in the city. The meeting was followed by a dinner hosted by the IBCCI leaders in honor of the High Commissioner.
The function was presided over by Abdul Matlub Ahmad, President of the IBCCI. Among those who spoke at the meeting were IBCCI Vice President Shoeb Chowdhury, IBCCI Honorary Secretary General Venugopal Numbikkeril Chellappan Pillai, Directors Dewan Sultan Ahmed, Mohammad Ali, Meherun Nessa Islam, Farkhunda Jabeen Khan, Abhisek Das, Brajesh Kumar, Md. Abdul Wahed and Shishir Kothari. Jahangir Bin Alam, Secretary and CEO of the IBCCI, was present on the occasion.
In her response, High Commissioner Riva Ganguly Das congratulated the IBCCI leaders on Bangladesh's having achieved such a remarkable export benchmark. She noted that mutual cooperation between India and Bangladesh would undergo a rise with each passing day. Such cooperation would certainly help strengthen the foundations of economic ties between the two friendly countries, she pointed out.
Ms. Das emphasized the significance of the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal (BBIN) initiative and at the same time noted that reinforced infrastructural development would boost connectivity between Bangladesh and India's north-eastern region.
The Indian High Commissioner said that India had stood beside Bangladesh in all its travails and social disasters in the past and would stand beside the country in the future as well. Riva Ganguly Das made note of the fact that Bangladesh was an emerging tiger. She thanked the IBCCI for playing its due role in promoting cooperation between Delhi and Dhaka.
In his remarks, Matlub Ahmad, President of the IBCCI, said that during the last few years economic cooperation between the two countries had been on a rapid increase. He expressed his confidence that the trade gap between the two countries would be minimized soon since Bangladesh has been exporting goods to the Indian market, he added.
Shoeb Chowdhury, Vice President of the IBCCI, thanked the government of India for its cooperation in developing Bangladesh's power sector and helping to build the country's infrastructures under an $8B Indian Line of Credit (LoC) collaboration. He thanked the Indian business community for having imported Bangladeshi goods worth more than one billion US dollars into the Indian market for the first time.
Shoeb Chowdhury recalled Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's expression of sentiments regarding Bangladesh-India relations - "We are near and we are together."
He voiced the hope that the new Indian High Commissioner would play a vital role in ensuring a continuity of bilateral economic cooperation between the two neighboring countries as she is certainly aware of Bangladesh's socio-economic conditions.
Former High Commissioner of Bangladesh to India Tufail Karim Haider, Former High Commissioner of Bangladesh to India Ahmad Tariq Karim, former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh Abul Hasan Chowdhury, former FBCCI President Mohammad Ali, former IBCCI President Taskin Ahmed and other dignitaries were present at the function.
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