Minister highlights trade benefits from India
The duty free access granted by India to all but 25 banned items from Bangladesh under SAFTA is yielding positive results for bilateral trade, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said yesterday.
“We are also working on various trade facilitation measures, including removal of non-tariff barriers, improvement of infrastructure of land customs stations and land ports, harmonisation of standards and mutual recognition of certificates,” she said.
The two countries have also operationalised two border haats along the Bangladesh-Meghalaya border and are in the process of opening two new ones along the Bangladesh-Tripura border.
At a press conference, the minister listed the achievements in the last four years in different areas between the two countries, including security, border management, revised travel arrangements, land boundary agreement, trade and investment, connectivity, cooperation in power and water resources.
On connectivity, she said the two countries are working on the full implementation of the decision to use Ashuganj as a transhipment point for transportation of cargo to Agartala via Akhaura.
Bangladesh and India have also signed a deal on establishing rail links between Akhaura and Agartala and are working on reviving old rail linkages in Chilahati-Haldibari and Kulaura-Mahishashan.
“Our officials are working on making the Maitree Express, the direct train between Dhaka and Kolkata, more user-friendly and reducing travel time,” the minister said.
As the Dhaka-Kolkata and Dhaka-Agartala bus services are popular, both countries are now examining the introduction of Dhaka-Shillong and Dhaka-Guwahati bus services.
The two neighbours are cooperating on construction of a bridge over the Feni River and development of Ramgarh-Sabroom Land Customs Station for easy transportation of goods from Chittagong port to Tripura.
On cooperation in the power sector, the minister said work is progressing on inter-grid connectivity between Behrampur-Bheramara to import power from India to Bangladesh.
Both the countries are also working on establishing a 1320 MW coal based joint venture power plant at Rampal, Bagerhat. “We are also working on exploring the possibilities for more collaboration on projects in the northeastern states of India.”
On the water resources sector, she said Bangladesh is hopeful that the Indian government will be able to complete their internal consultations soon to sign an Interim Agreement to share the waters of Teesta.
Bangladesh and India are doing some preliminary work on sharing the waters of other common rivers, she added.
Bangladesh is happy to have received a positive response from the Indian government on its proposal on sub-regional cooperation to harness this region's common water resources for flood management and mitigation and generation of hydro-electricity to meet ever increasing demand for power, Dipu Moni.
On the Indian $1 billion line of credit (LOC), the minister said that after some initial problems, most of the projects financed by the LOC are now progressing smoothly.
Comments