Bangladesh should go for expansion of its diplomatic network at a cost effective manner by engaging honorary consuls to expand its position in the global market especially in accelerating trade and attracting investment. ‘Many countries like Canada, Cyprus, Iceland, Mexico and the Philippines are using such services of the honorary consuls as a cost effective tool to expand their global outreach for trade, investment, tourism and others. Bangladesh also can do so,’ ambassador M Humayun Kabir, a former diplomat, told a seminar while presenting the keynote paper.
Kabir said honorary consular service is a tool to leverage the opportunity offered both by the globalisation and the localisation of the human interactions.
Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with FriendRich Naumann Foundation, Bangladesh arranged the seminar on ‘Role of Honorary Consuls in Promoting Bilateral trade and Investment’ at Sonargaon Hotel.
Commerce minister Tofail Ahmed spoke on the occasion as the chief guest while prime minister’s international affairs adviser Gowher Rizvi and president of consular corps of Bangladesh Asif A Chowdhury were the special guests.
FBCCI president Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed moderated the seminar while former ambassador Mohammad Zamir, president of American Chamber of Commerce and Industry Aftab-Ul-Islam, professor of Department of International Relations of Dhaka University Akmal Hossain and director of the chamber Asif Ibrahim spoke as designated discussants.
Two honorary consuls — Hakim Ali of Myanmar and Niaz Ahmed of Newzealand also shared their views on the topic.
Ambassador Kabir suggested that Bangladesh should prepare a draft guideline as soon as possible for the honorary consuls in consultation with the honorary consular corps to reinforce national issues.
Sri Lanka has already enacted a law in 2006 to this end, he said.
Tofail Ahmed spoke about different issues including duty-free market access, generalised System of Preferences in the US market and Preferential Trade Agreement and Free Trade Agreement.
He said Bangladesh would sign PTA with Chili for getting duty-free market access to the South American state expected from January 2015.
India’s market has become more competitive after it inked FTA with the European Union, said the minister.
Gowher Rizvi favoured projecting Bangladesh’s success stories abroad. In doing so, he sought the support of the honorary consuls.
‘We want to lessen Bangladesh’s huge dependence on foreign aid by increasing trade,’ he said.
Ambassador Zamir underlined the need for more interaction of honorary consuls of the European countries with businessmen of joint trade-bodies for boosting trade and commerce.
There are 81 honorary consuls from different countries in Bangladesh while the country has 51 honorary consuls abroad.
-With New Age input
