Turkey assures Bangladesh of bolstering trade relations
The bilateral trade between the two countries increased from $400 million to $1 billion in nine years
Turkey has assured Bangladesh of its support in various trade sectors including agriculture, agro-processing, jute and jute-processing.
The country has also pledged to help Bangladesh get halal certificate to start exporting meat following Bangladesh's recent success in livestock, especially in cow production.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay gave such assurance to Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal during the latter's visit to Ankara on Thursday to join the 5th Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting, said a finance ministry press release.
The press release also said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to Dhaka in 2010 expressed commitment to help raise the bilateral trade volume between Bangladesh and Turkey to $3 billion. This issue was also discussed in the Thursday's meeting.
The bilateral trade between the two countries increased from $400 million to $1 billion in nine years.
"The trade did not increase considerably due to tariff barriers," the Turkish vice president said, adding Turkey will open an office in Dhaka to expand trade.
He promised to boost the bilateral trade on the basis of cooperation rather than competing with each other.
He urged Bangladesh to take the advantage of exporting such products which Turkey are produced well in Turkey.
The Turkish vice president also said his country is interested in investing in sectors such as leather industry and ICT.
Finance Minister Mustafa Kamal sought assistance from Turkey in Rohingya repatriation. In response, the Turkish vice president reassured him saying Turkey will work on to creating more international pressure on Myanmar to start the repatriation process.
In reply to the finance minister's proposal to give the Rohingya refugees shelter in Muslim countries by sharing, Fuat Oktay said he would discuss with the Turkish president on the issue.