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Exploration of Chinese market underscored
Experts for reviewing Look East policy
Experts and
businessmen on Monday stressed on exploring Chinese market
for local products as Bangladesh may not get duty-free
access to India soon.
They also suggested that the country’s ‘Look East’ policy
should be reviewed as India is pursuing intensively to build
economic and trade cooperation with the Association of
South-East Asian Nation (ASEAN).
They were speaking at a dialogue on ‘Regionalism versus
multilateralism: what could Bangladesh learn from the global
experience?’ at the CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka.
Organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), the meet
was presided over by the CPD chairman, Professor Rehman
Sobhan.
‘China is importing a huge quantity of products from the
ASEAN countries and it is one of the biggest importers in
the world,’ said Rehman.
‘Now it is our challenge to get access to the Chinese
market.’
In the keynote speech, the director of Brussels-based
European Institute for Asian Studies, William van der Geest,
said Bangladesh should re-examine the ‘Look East’ policy in
the light of new ASEAN-India trade relations.
He said that India has already offered unilateral trade
concessions to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Currently, Bangladesh is suffering trade deficit of $1.4
billion with the ASEAN, of which $1.2 billion is with China
alone at a time when almost all countries in East and
South-East Asia have managed to increase their exports to
China at a faster rate, he added.
In this connection, he suggested that both the ministry of
commerce and ministry of foreign affairs should be active in
reviewing the trade policy taking into account the recent
developments in international political and economic
relations.
Taking part in the discussion, Professor Abu Ahmed said to
increase exports to China, Bangladesh should utilise the
Asian giant’s capacity of absorbing huge imports.
On regional trade agreement, the economist preferred South
Asian Free Trade Area to bilateral free trade agreements
with other countries.
‘SAFTA will be much better and it cannot be substituted with
any bilateral agreement,’ he observed. In his speech, the
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association
(BKMEA) president, Fazlul Haque, said China could be a big
market for Bangladeshi products specially knitwear.
‘We produce very good quality of knit products including
T-shirt where China still lags behind,’ he said.
Referring to his visit to Yunan province of China, Rehman
Sobhan said that Bangladesh could cater to lower segment of
garments products.
He also requested the commerce minister to place the topic
in the next trade talk with China.
In response, Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury said
that government is working on exploring Chinese market.
The director of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, A Rouf Chowdhry, said that by
adopting Look-East policy, Bangladesh virtually opened its
market to everyone.
Political councillor of Indian High Commission in Dhaka,
Gaddam Dharmendra, said negotiation on bilateral free trade
was initiated in 2003, but later it became slower due to
Dhaka’s ‘go-slow’ policy.
Former commerce minister Tofail Ahmed, former foreign
secretary Farooq Sobhan, former commerce secretary Alamgir
Farrouk Chowdhury, Dhaka Chamber president Saiful Islam and
EU delegation official Anne Marshal were among the speakers.
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