A high-level Bangladesh delegation is expected to visit Saudi Arabia soon to explore business opportunities between the two countries.
Bangladesh Consulate in Jeddah has already started working to establish channels of communication between the trading communities in the port cities of Chittagong and Jeddah, according to the Arab News.
Chittagong is a strategic port in Asia and the business hub of Bangladesh while Jeddah is an important port on the Red Sea.
Chittagong is strategically located sharing borders with Burma, China and India while the landlocked neighbors such as Nepal and Bhutan need the port as an entry point for cargo to be transported to their countries, consul general of Bangladesh in Jeddah Nazmul Islam told Arab News, Saudi Arabia’s first English-language newspaper.
Besides these two countries, the emerging economic giant India also wants access to Chittagong to send goods to its seven north-eastern states.
The top priorities, which will be explored in the proposed visit by the Bangladesh delegation, will be garments, pharmaceuticals and the manpower sectors, reported the Arab News on Saturday, quoting Nazmul Islam.
The Bangladesh consul general visited the Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday (January 29) to meet with officials to discuss the strengthening of business ties between the two countries. Nazmul Islam was received by vice president of Makkah Chamber Mazin Bin Fuad Tunsi and presented him with a memento, the daily said.
The Makkah Chamber will play an important role in developing business channels between the two countries, Nazmul Islam said. “Bangladesh is expecting to receive positive news from the Kingdom in terms of manpower recruitment from Bangladesh.”
Nazmul Islam confirmed the daily that the recruitment process is expected to take place soon and that the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh has been working closely with Saudi authorities in this regard.
Bangladesh is one of the few countries where the Haj pilgrimage costs did not surge compared to other countries owing to its strong economy.
In the last five years, its GDP has grown at an average rate of 6.3 percent per year, in the midst of one of the worst global downturns in recent times, the daily said.
It has achieved its 2015 UN Millennium Development Goals two years in advance. In 2013, it had brought down the number of poor to less than 30 percent of its population – a target set for 2015 by the UN.
In most indices of human development, especially gender-related, Bangladesh has surged miles (in some cases, yards) ahead of India and other south Asian nations. Where India is unable to manage its spiraling current account deficit, Bangladesh sits on a comfortable current account surplus of $2.57 billion for the first time in history since independence, the Arab News said.
Source: UNBConnect
