Pvt sector dev, trade expansion growth drivers for Bangladesh: Rushanara

UK prime minister’s trade envoy Rushanara Ali had a bilateral meeting with the business leaders of Bangladesh at the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the capital on Tuesday.
DCCI president Rizwan Rahman chaired the meeting. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Miran Ali, SBK Tech Venture founder and managing director Sonia Bashir Kabir, United Group group chairman and MD Moinuddin Hasan Rashid and Apex Group MD Syed Nasim Manzur also
took part in the discussion.
Rizwan Rahman said that the bilateral trade between Bangladesh and UK was USD 4.11 billion in 2021. UK’s net FDI stock in Bangladesh was about USD 2.53 billion and UK was the 3rd largest export destination for Bangladesh and in future it would grow further.
He invited British investments in the ship building, RMG, agro-processing, leather and footwear, light engineering and skills development sector of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh will enjoy duty-free, quota-free facility in the UK up to 2029. He requested to allow Bangladesh to continue this facility even after 2029.
He also said that Rules of Origin requirement facility could be eased and extended. Technical Barriers to Trade needed to be reduced and rationalised, he added.
Rushanara Ali said that Bangladesh had done a tremendous success in the socio-economic sector. For the continuation of this progress she asked for public and private sectors’ coordination.
She said that private sector development and trade expansion are the real growth drivers for Bangladesh’s economy. She also urged enhancing bilateral partnership between UK and Bangladesh.
British High Commissioner in Dhaka Robert Chatterton Dickson said that Bangladesh’s private sector was very strong and were leading the economy from the front. He said that the Mirsarai Economic Zone in Chattagram was a good place for attracting foreign investment and there was a huge opportunity for UK’s investors
as well.