India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry to be launched
Press Information Bureau, Government of India
India-Bangladesh Chamber Of Commerce & Industry To Be Launched On July 22; Jairam Ramesh To Visit Dhaka
20 July 2007
The Minister of State for Commerce Shri Jairam Ramesh is visiting Dhaka on July 22, 2007 to be present at the launch of the India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry by Dr. Iajuddin Ahmed, President of Bangladesh. This Chamber is being launched by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry and the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry to provide a high-level forum for accelerating economic partnerships between the two countries. Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam, the Advisor for Finance, Planning and Commerce of the caretaker government will also be present at the inaugural ceremony.
During the visit, Shri Jairam Ramesh will meet with prominent members of the business community and think-tanks and also have separate meetings with Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam and with Major General (Retd) M.A. Matin, the Adviser for Communications, Shipping, Civil Aviation & Tourism. Apart from several other issues pertaining to trade and investment relations between the two countries, the issue of trade balance is likely to figure in the discussions. India’s exports to Bangladesh during Apr 2006-Feb 2007, were $ 1.5 billion and imports from Bangladesh were $ 205 million. Bangladesh has expressed concern at this deficit and has also been pointing out what it feels are unfair non-tariff barriers to its exports to India. Shri Ramesh is also expected to take up proposals submitted by India for improving connectivity and access.
The forthcoming visit of Shri Ramesh is coming soon after the visit of the External Affairs Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee to Dhaka on February 19,2007 and the visit of the Foreign Secretary Shri Shiv Shankar Menon during June 25-26,2007 and thus demonstrates the seriousness of the Government of India to pursue closer economic engagement with Bangladesh.
Shri Ramesh had last visited Dhaka in April 2006 to attend the first meeting of the SAFTA Ministerial Council. He subsequently inaugurated the first ever Bangladesh Single Country Fair in Agartala in March 2007. In the last year, the Minister of State for Commerce has also taken special interest in developing projects to upgrade infrastructure at land custom stations along the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal, Assam, Tripura & Meghalaya particularly at Petrapole in West Bengal through which about two-thirds of bilateral trade takes place.
