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Bangladesh and Bhutan renew trade agreement |
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May 16, 2000
Dhaka, May 15 (UNB) - Bangladesh and Bhutan today (Monday) agreed to renew the trade agreement, which expires in September, to expand volume of bilateral trade heavily inclined towards Bhutan. "We've agreed to renew the current trade agreement before September when matters relating to opening new transit route would come up," Bhutanese Foreign Minister Lyonpo Jigme Y Thinley told newsmen after official talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Abdus Samad Azad at the Foreign Office. He said the talks that covered wide range of topics, including sub-regional and regional cooperation, were "very useful and satisfactory." Cooperation is inevitable in the wake of globalisation, he added. Asked about the postponement of SAARC summit, Thinley said: "We see it as a brief halt, but it must go on in the collective interest of the countries of the region. We want to explore the vast potential and realise it for the benefit of the people." Explaining the point, he said because of certain development in a member state, the summit was postponed, but postponement of the summit would not cast any adverse impact on the activities of the seven-nation forum. "We are committed to SAARC," he said and hoped that an enabling political situation would be created for holding the summit. About the state of bilateral trade between Dhaka and Thimpu, the Bhutanese Foreign Minister said: "It is picking up." Annual export from Bhutan is six million US dollars against Bangladesh's "formal and informal" export worth two million dollars, he informed. To a question about the poor export from Dhaka, he thought Bangladeshi exporters are not interested in exporting to the Bhutanese market, which is small but steadily growing now. "I feel Bangladeshi exporters should look at the Bhutanese market, which is now growing," he said, adding that Bangladeshi export products enjoy minimum tariff barrier from Bhutan. "We need to diversify and deepen trade," he said. Asked if any third country is seen as an obstacle to enhance bilateral trade, the Bhutanese Minister replied in the negative. About the export of power from Bhutan to Bangladesh, he regretted local press reports misquoting him and said his country is not in a position to export its surplus power. Bhutan, which is producing power in collaboration with India, exports its surplus to that country, Thinley added. Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad said both the countries have developed economic and trade relations and hold one view on the SAARC. Sub-regional and regional grouping of countries of the region is working silently but steadily, he added. |