The British prime minister, David Cameron, appointed lawmaker Rushanara Ali as a member of cross-party trade envoy network for Bangladesh.
The appointment, made on the occasion of the Bangla New Year, underlined the importance United Kingdom ‘attaches to its trade and investment partnership with Bangladesh,’ said a British High Commission release on Friday.
On her appointment, Rushanara Ali, a Bangladesh-origin British lawmaker, said that Bangladesh had been identified as an emerging market with substantial trade and investment opportunities.
‘It is a country of particular importance to me: a third of my constituents have Bangladeshi heritage and I was the first person of Bangladeshi origin to be elected to the UK parliament,’ she said.
She said that she wanted to see Britain play a twin role helping Bangladesh thrive economically and supporting the country’s efforts to tackle the threat of climate change.
Rushanara Ali is the Labour Party lawmaker for the constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow in London. In her parliamentary career, she has been shadow minister for education and International development and a member of the Parliamentary Treasury Select Committee. She currently serves as a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee for Energy and Climate Change.
The cross-party trade envoy programme was established in 2012 to build bilateral trade relationships and help drive economic growth in countries identified as key markets for the UK. This is part of a new whole-of-government approach of the British government to boosting trade with priority markets and sectors.
British high commissioner in Dhaka Alison Blake said that there were ‘exciting opportunities for UK companies in Bangladesh as the economy here was growing impressively, said the release.
Two-way trade between the UK and Bangladesh stands at £2.3m. Over 100 British companies are operating in sectors including retail, banking, energy, infrastructure, consultancy and education with main centres of operation in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet.
Source: New Age
