The Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) has suggested a joint council with South Korea to explore business opportunities in the world’s 15th largest economy.
President Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed also suggested organising regular trade fairs in Korea to familiarise the people there with Bangladeshi products as he observed that despite duty-free and quota-free market access, ‘Bangladesh’s exports are yet to pick up’.
He was speaking at a seminar on ‘strengthening strategic partnership between Bangladesh and Korea’ in Dhaka marking 40 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
A strong development partner of Bangladesh, Korea opened its embassy in Dhaka early in 1975, more than a year after the establishment of the diplomatic relations in 1973.
The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency opened its office in Dhaka in 1978. In the 70s, Korean entrepreneurs came here to set up garment factories, ‘many of whom are still active in Bangladesh’.
A leading investor in Bangladesh, Korea’s current investment ranges from textiles to power generation, energy and natural resources development, shipbuilding and ICT.
As of 2010, Korean private investment surpassed $ 698 million with 328 companies being registered in Bangladesh’s Board of Investment.
Big companies like Samsung and LG are expanding their commercial presence in Bangladesh while small and medium-sized enterprises are also turning up.
But, experts say, due to lack of diversity in Bangladesh’s export basket, its trade gap with Korea remains high with more than $1.5 billion in imports against only $209 million in exports in 2011-12.
Currently 291 Bangladesh items are enjoying duty-free or quota-free access to Korea.
“Bangladeshis are well acquainted with Korean products. But the same cannot be said for Bangladeshi products in Korea,” the FBCCI President said.
“So it’s important to hold single country trade fairs of Bangladeshi products in Korea on a regular basis to make the Korean consumers know about good quality Bangladeshi products,’’ he said as he believed Bangladesh had ‘opportunities’ to narrow down the trade gap.
Ahmed said Bangladesh also had the potentials to push earnings from Korea through trade beyond commodities like tourism, medical services, education, finance, and business consultancy.
“Korea may choose to import more of our woven garments, diversified leather goods and jute goods, frozen food and agriculture products,’’ the FBCCI chief he said.
“Joint efforts should be made for developing a system of accreditation to ensure the quality and standards of our products to Korean markets,” he added.
The FBCCI President also stressed the need for joint investment in the areas of energy, infrastructure, technology, human resources development and services for boosting partnership between the two countries.
In the day-long seminar, Korea’s foreign policy and development and strategic cooperation were discussed.
The Korean embassy in Dhaka kicked off its year-long celebration of 40 years of Bangladesh camaraderie in January.
Source: bdnews24
