Growing Dhaka-Ankara ties
The return visit of Bangladesh prime minister to Turkey last week has opened a new vista of bilateral relationship between the two countries with very longstanding fraternal ties. The renewed endeavor was commenced with the visit of Turkey's Prime Minister Erdoðan to Bangladesh in November, 2010, the first Turkish Prime Minister to do so in almost 21 years. Hasina's reciprocal visit opens up the prospect of deepening the economic ties between the two countries as the several deals signed between them show.We note with satisfaction the commitment of the two leaders to enhance the volume of trade to 3 billion dollars by 2015 that stands at 1 billion at the moment. Given the significant rise in the bilateral trade volume since 2002 when it was only $47 million the figure had reached $658 million by 2009 and is $1 billion at present, the figure of $3 billion is very attainable if the content of the export basket was increased as was suggested by Bangladesh. And the prospect of enhancing the volume of trade between Bangladesh and Turkey is even greater particularly after the two countries sign FTA as agreed during the visit.
The signing of the investment cooperation agreement will facilitate Turkish investments in Bangladesh since it is particularly interested in relocating its labor-intensive industries such as textile and garment.
Turkey happens to be the sixth largest economy in Europe and the sixteenth in the world. And it so happens that Turkey and Bangladesh are also a part of the D-8 designed to facilitate arrangement for development cooperation within the group that also includes Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan.
The deals that have been inked and the commitments made by the two leaders for cooperation in other areas will help both the countries in their economic development as well bring the two peoples closer.
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