Dhaka targets $1b exports to Turkey in few years
Commerce Adviser Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman has expected Bangladesh's export to Turkey to reach one billion US dollars in a few years.
“If we can enter the Turkey market with full potentials, the export will touch the $1 billion mark shortly,” he told a press conference at his ministry. However the adviser did not elaborate the timeframe.
He said the country's export to Turkey reached $350 million in the first eight months of 2008 from $120 million in 2007. Export target to Turkey has been set at $220 million for 2008.
Bangladesh exports jute and jute goods, leather products and readymade garments to Turkey, the 17th largest economy in the world. But rubber and pharmaceuticals have huge potentials there.
Turkey, the size of which economy is $850 billion, progressed tremendous in chemical, petrochemical, bio-medical equipment, construction, machinery and textile in the past decade.
Bangladesh is a least developed country with around $75 billion worth of economy.
“Recently, we have started exporting rubber to Turkey. The product is being used for making tyres for motor vehicles,” Hossain Zillur said.
Turkey can be a gateway for Bangladesh's pharmaceutical products to Europe and the central Asia republics, the adviser said.
The construction firms of that country are working in the central Asia countries. Bangladeshi workers can work there, but it needs to develop a relationship with Turkey, he said.
To ease travel difficulties, Ankara has agreed to introduce a direct flight between the two Muslim brethren countries by April 2009, the commerce adviser disclosed.
He said a big team comprising leading businessmen of Turkey is to visit Bangladesh in November this year to explore business potentials here.
Face to face talks between the businessmen of the two countries are also necessary for boosting the trade, he said.
“We need to search out new, but potential markets vigorously,” Hossain Zillur said.
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