Bangladesh is confident of creating more employment opportunities for its expatriate workers and expanding market for exportable items mainly in the Asian countries including the Gulf region, officials said on Tuesday.
The confidence has grown as a number of proactive schemes taken by both public and private sector enterprises in the country got favourable response from the Gulf region including the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
There was also encouraging response for bilateral trade from Turkey and employment of more expatriate workers in Malaysia, officials of the relevant ministries said.
“As a result of the the efforts, the volume of trade between Bangladesh and the UAE is likely to cross $1.0 billion (Dirham 3.67 billion) in the current fiscal year (FY) 2012 until June,” a foreign ministry official told the FE.
The volume of trade betweeen Bangladesh and the UAE reached around $900 million in the last FY 2011, with exports from the former to the latter rising to $125 million and imports from the latter to the former reaching $770 million, the official said.
Bangldeshi expatriate community in the UAE and a couple of Bangladesh-based private companies had contributed a lot to expanding bilateral trade.
Bangladesh-based private companies like Rahimafroz and Walton have marketised their electonic and battery products successfully in the Gulf states including the UAE over the past years.
The growth in bilateral trade and empolyment of Bangladeshi expatriate workers were higher in the UAE compared to other countries of the Gulf region which empolys most of the Bangladesh’s eight million expatriate workers, officials said.
Expatriate workers send home some $12 billion a year, next to ready-madegarments exports earning of the country worth some $18 billion a year.
So far some 700,000 Bangladeshi expartiate workers have been employed in the UAE alone including some 250,000 workers who managed job in the oil-rich country in the last calendar year, officials of the ministry of expartiates’ welfare and overseas employment (MEWOE), said.
The interaction between private and state-owned firms of both the countries increased after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had visited the UAE and signed two trade and investment agreements in 2011.
Investments from the UAE in Bangladesh reached some $3.0 billion in ceramics, telecommunications, banking, construction and services until December 2011, said officials of the the Board of Investment.
Bangladeshi business groups dealing in readymade garments, ceramics, furniture and other sectors are considering opening showrooms in the UAE to boost their business activities, official said.
Meanwhile airlines of the respective countries are gradually increasing their flight frequency between Bangladesh and the UAE, to meet requirements of the Bangladeshi expatriate workers. Currently, airlines of both the countries run 84 flights on both ways between different airports in both the countries each week.
Meanwhile apart from the Gulf region, trade volume between Bangladesh and the Euro-Asian country Turkey, reached around $1.0 billion in 2011, despite an existing heavy import duty on ready-made garments.
The exports of garments and other items are expected to increase following an upcoming visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Turkey next month, officials said.
Traders are also hoping expansion of medicine exports to Turkey in the coming years, as Turkish medicine importers are showing a great deal of interest for Bangladeshi medicines.
Bangladesh pharmaceutical companies export medicines worth $1.0 billion to some 80 countries across the world, exporters in the relevant sector said.
The trade volume between Bangladesh and Turkey was only $47 million in 2002, and it had reached $658 million by 2009 and last year it hit $1.0 billion, foreign ministry officials said
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his trip to Bangladesh in November 2010 said there was a scope to increase bilateral trade up to $3 billion a year.
Meanwhile, following efforts from the Bangladesh’s relevant ministry the Malaysian government had taken steps to legalise soon some 275,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers in that country, where some 500,000 Bangladeshis have already been employed legally.
On the other hand, Malaysia had also agreed to take around 1.1 million more workers from Bangladesh in near future, officials of the MEWOE said.
source: http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com / Last page / Dhaka / by Nizam Ahmed / Wednesday, March 28th, 2012