Bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Switzerland has tripled in a decade and the trend continues to grow as the two countries are exploring new ways of trade and investments.

The bilateral trade stood at around $850 million up from the $300 million in 2010, according to Swiss statistics.

"Most of the major Swiss multinational companies as well as a number of small and medium enterprises are present in Bangladesh," says a statement of the Swiss Embassy in Dhaka after the two countries held talks on promoting trade and investment today.

The second meeting between the Inter-agency Committee of Bangladesh and Switzerland was held in Dhaka on November 18, 2020.

The Inter-agency Committee was formed by Bangladesh government in September 2018 to review and address challenges of Swiss businesses and investors in Bangladesh, and to promote trade and investment between the two countries. The first Inter-agency Committee meeting took place in April 2019.

Bangladesh delegation was led by Commerce Secretary Jafar Uddin while Ambassador Erwin Bollinger, the Swiss Federal Council's Delegate for Trade Agreements and Head of the Bilateral Economic Relations Division at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, led the Swiss delegation and joined the meeting via videoconference from Bern, Switzerland.

The Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh Nathalie Chuard also attended the meeting which was held at the Ministry of Commerce in Dhaka.

Both parties welcomed the positive developments of bilateral trade and investment, explored ways to further strengthen business relations, presented respective trade and investment promotion measures, reviewed specific company issues and discussed the overall business climate in Bangladesh.

Highlighting the prospects of further economic cooperation, Ambassador Bollinger said: "Our bilateral economic relations are good and mutually profitable, with a positive trend observed over the past years".

Commerce Secretary Jafar Uddin expressed Bangladesh's wish to further intensify the promising trade and investment dynamics.

Despite various challenges related to ease of doing business as well as Covid-19, Swiss companies continue to see promising potential in the Bangladeshi market. Economic relations between Switzerland and Bangladesh, therefore, are growing rapidly, the officials said, according to the statement.