Turkey to open TIKA office in Dhaka

[Gyp 111]

Turkey to open TIKA office in Dhaka | Business | bdnews24.com

Dhaka, Nov 12 (bdnews24.com)—Turkey will set up a local office of Turkish Development Agency (TIKA) in Dhaka to coordinate its development activities in Bangladesh as the two countries eye $3 billion bilateral trade by 2015.

The announcement came after the fourth Bangladesh-Turkey Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting that ended on Monday in Dhaka.

The two-day meeting discussed a wide range of bilateral issues from trade promotion activities to investment.

Bangladesh welcomed the decision to set up TIKA office as Turkish side showed interest in agriculture, industries, health, energy, education and training.

"The potential of bilateral relations must be very good. In 2008 we had a very small trade. But it shot up very fast in 2010. We are tempted to shoot it up further with a very large target," Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said at a press briefing afterwards.

Turkey's Labour and Social Security Minister Faruk Celik at the briefing said, "Real potentials lie upon young population of both the countries. Majority of our (Bangladesh and Turkey) population is young. It has huge potentials in the following period, if we can translate them into skilled labour."

Turkey, which is lobbying hard for European Union membership, has been seeking stronger bonding with the Muslim-majority countries including Bangladesh.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul visited Bangladesh in 2010 to reciprocate his counterpart President Mohammad Zillur Rahman's visit.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has visited Turkey twice during her nearly four years in office and signed seven agreements to enhance cooperation and trade as the bilateral trade soared to $1 billion in 2010.

A 15-member Turkish business delegation joined the meeting. The third JEC meeting was held in Ankara in Nov, 2009.

According to Economic Relations Division (ERD), the core objective of the JEC, formed in 1979, was to explore the possibility of enhancing bilateral trade 'based on mutual benefit' and to advance economic ties and cooperation.

The Finance Minister said pharmaceutical would be 'a new sector' going to enter Turkey's market shortly. "Formalities are over."

He said the $300million line of credit from Turkey might 'result in investment.'

When the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina proposed Free Trade Agreement during her visit, Turkish minister Celik had said they would consider it following European Union customs. He also suggested that "Bangladesh can officially request for preferential trade access".

"Our technical team will come to discuss the issue," he said.

The Turkish minister suggested overcoming 'bureaucratic problems' and more economic activities to reach the targeted trade volume by 2015.

"Diversification is very important," Celik said, "When we talk about bilateral relations, diversification comes at the forefront of the agenda."

According to an ERD media release, the discussions took place in a cordial atmosphere reflecting 'the friendly relations between the two countries and the desire to strengthen bilateral economic and commercial relations'.

Turkey expressed their interest to provide long-term support to Bangladesh in petroleum products and LNG export in the public sector.

Among other issues, direct flights from Chittagong to Istanbul were also discussed in the meeting.

Bangladesh requested it to employ its workers and professionals in Turkish firms.

Minister Celik said Turkish contractors were appointing Bangladeshi workers in Turkey and a third country like Libya.

"They (Turkish contractors) will come shortly," he said suggesting skills of the labour forces be developed.

"It's easy to find a job everywhere if you have skills."

 

[CaPtAiN_pLaNeT]

Dhaka-Ankara to raise trade volume to US$ 3 billion


Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS)

DHAKA, Nov 12, 2012 (BSS) - Bangladesh and Turkey today showed interest to increase trade volume to US$ 3 billion in next three years to reap highest bilateral benefit through stepping forward economic cooperation.

Both the countries expressed their interest at a press briefing after a two-day "Bangladesh-Turkey Joint Economic Commission" meeting held at the NEC-II conference room in city's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.

Turkey also expressed its interest to provide long-term support in petroleum products and LNG export to Bangladesh in the public sector.

Besides, the issue of direct flight from Chittagong to Istanbul was discussed in the JEC meeting.

The Turkish side showed their interest in the field of agriculture, industries, health, energy, education and training as well as expressed that they would like to involve more in training and capacity building related activities.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith led the Bangladesh side while Turkish Minister for Labour and Social Security Faruk Celik led the Turkish side in the 4th JEC meeting.

The representatives of the two countries inked a protocol of the Fourth Session of Joint Commission for Trade, Economic, Technical Cooperation between the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh and the Republic of Turkey' highlighting 17 areas of cooperation.

About boosting the trade volume, Turkish Minister Faruk Celik said both the countries need to overcome bureaucratic problems with their friendly relations apart from promoting diversification of goods.

He opined that the real potentials of both the countries lies in young population as majority of the population of these two countries are young. "We can transfer it in to skilled labour force," he said.

On the issue of manpower export, Faruk Celik said they are well ahead of that process as his country's contractors would come to Bangladesh to assess the situation.

Addressing the press briefing, Finance minister Muhith said potentials of boosting the trade volume between the two countries is good as the trade volume was less than 300 million in 2008, but shoot up to US$ 1 billion in 2010.

"Attempts will be there to shoot for very large targets," he added.

Muhith said that the Bangladesh's economy is growing fast as the exports rose $ 25 billion against the imports of US$ 31 billion in 2011.

But, he cited that Bangladesh's exports accounted for just US$ 15 billion while imports US$ 18 billion just three years back.

"So, we've every reason to hope and it would be better," he said.

Replying to a query about the waiver of 17.5 percent duty on Bangladeshi apparel export to Turkey, Muhith said this was discussed certainly in the JEC adding that Turkey imposed such duty not only on Bangladeshi goods, but in all of their imports.

"We discussed it, came up in connection with the FTA (Free Trade Agreement)..a matter of negotiation," he added.

In this regard, the Turkish Minister said that if official request for FTA is sent from Bangladesh, Turkey would send a delegation to Bangladesh.

Faruk Celik said that the political relationship between the two countries is going fruitful and his government attaches great importance to the decisions taken at the recent JEC as it embarked a protocol highlighting 17 topics.

He also opined that the JEC meeting would be helpful to further increase the trade volume of the two countries.

During the two- day JEC meeting, various issues of mutual interests were discussed including trade promotion activities, investment, Turkish ODA support to Bangladesh under TIKA grant facility, set up TIKA local office in Dhaka, cooperation in agriculture, industries, food security, health, manpower, export, energy, civil aviation, importation of petroleum products, free trade agreement and capacity building.

 

[mb444]

Good news.... We must facilitate transition of Turkish garment industry in to Bangladesh.

The Turks have large ready made garment sector where they are no longer able to compete internationally in the lower end sector. This is where Bangladeshis competitive advantage lies, their firms are looking to move to a cheaper country whilst developing higher value ready-made garment manufacturing.

It's a win-win situation they make profit our economy grows.

 

[Mig-35]

Agreed!! this is a good news. I think bd should open its gate for all the countries worldwide to come and invest in whatever they wish...