Bangladesh and Iran have agreed to form a joint business council comprising members of business community and private sector representatives to boost the bilateral trade
and economic cooperation between the two countries.
Iran has also expressed its readiness to export coaches and locomotives to Bangladesh and sign a memorandum of understanding on sister port relationship between Chittagong port and Shaid Rajaee port of Iran.
Both the countries have also agreed to renew the existing air transport agreement.
The above outcomes came on Thursday at the 5th Joint Economic Council’s meeting organised by the Economic Relations Division at the National Economic Council in the city.
During the meeting, both the sides agreed to further enhance cooperation in the fields of agriculture and fisheries, trade, health, tourism, food security, investment, industry, information technology, customs and banking cooperation, education, science and technology.
At the end of the two-day meeting, an agreed minute was signed between finance minister AMA Muhith and Iranian industry, mines and trade minister Mehdi Ghazanfari followed by a news briefing.
Muhith said at the briefing that Bangladesh had long-standing traditional ties with Iran. There is also opportunity to enhance the bilateral trade and economic cooperation between two friendly countries, he observed.
The core objective of the JEC was to explore the possibility of enhancing bilateral trade and economic ties based on mutual benefits and to advance cooperation in different areas of interest between two countries, said Muhith.
The finance minister said, ‘There is a barrier to boost trade with the Iran through the banking channel due to a United Nations sanction on Iran. But both the countries are working to find out ways to solve the problem to enhance bilateral trade.’
The Iranian minister said, ‘Our trade volume is increasing by 10 per cent to 20 per cent annually despite of the UN sanction.’
Ghazanfari said, ‘Due to the sanctions, currently Iran cannot get involved in transactions with Bangladesh as banking system is closed there. So, we have requested the UN to open up our banking system for trade with other countries.’
The 6th JEC meeting will be held in Tehran in 2014 at a date to be agreed upon through diplomatic channel, said ERD officials.
-With New Age input
