Bangladesh-Turkiye trade and investment potential to see high prospect in future: DCCI president

The trade and investment potential between Bangladesh and Turkiye will see high prospects in future, said Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries (DCCI) President Rizwan Rahman.

An 86-member business delegation of DCCI is visiting Istanbul, Turkiye to explore new trade and investment opportunities. During this visit the delegation attended the Bangladesh-Turkiye business forum arranged by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce on 28 September 2022, said a press release. 

In the welcome address Burhan Polat, executive board member of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce said that Bangladesh and Turkiye maintain a friendly bilateral trade relation since long.

He said Bangladesh is one of the important countries in the South Asian region in terms of trade and investment and Bangladesh is maintaining a steady economic growth for the last few decades. Bangladesh should increase its export basket and the volume.

Turkish market is one of the potential place for the Bangladeshi entrepreneurs. Bangladesh in recent times is doing better in the leather, pharmaceutical, RMG and light engineering sector. To boost bilateral trade he urged to sign trade agreement.

Moreover he stressed on enhancing liaison between the private sector of these two countries. Istanbul Chamber is one the largest trade organizations in the world having more than 6 lakh members. Istanbul Chamber will be happy to extend its full out cooperation to the Bangladeshi investors to explore new investment opportunities in Turkiye.

Dhaka Chamber President and leader of the delegation Rizwan Rahman said that in FY2020-21 the bilateral trade between Bangladesh land Turkiye was $871.55 million which is in favour of Bangladesh. But the volume is not to the expected level. Turkiye is the 23rd largest export destination of Bangladesh. Turkiye is the 29th largest foreign investor in Bangladesh amounting$30.51 million.

Rizwan Rahman also said that Bangladesh and Turkiye can work and advocate together to form an effective D-8 economic bloc.

He urged Turkiye to transfer state-of-the-art industrial technology. He also urged for capacity building of SMEs, research collaboration, strengthening agro-value chain and knowledge exchange. He also said that the existing bilateral trade volume does not reflect the actual trade potential between these two friendly countries. He later invited Turkish investors to invest in Bangladesh as well as import more from Bangladesh.

Later the business delegation members of Dhaka Chamber had an interactive business to business match making with more than 350 Turkish companies of different manufacturing and service sectors after the business forum.

After that Rizwan Rahman had a separate meeting with the President of Istanbul Chamber of Commerce Şekib Avdagiç.