Dhaka and Bangkok have agreed to discuss how Bangladesh and the Asean region can be connected to boost trade, services and investment.
Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque at a joint press conference with his Thai counterpart Norachit Sinhaseni yesterday said the mega connectivity had a huge potential.
The upbeat foreign secretaries talked about the mega connectivity for the first time in the four-hour-long first foreign office consultation meeting between the two countries.
“We have also decided that we will have joint working group on connectivity to see the road connectivity possibilities and how it can help facilitate trade and mobility,” Shahidul said.
In the meeting, Bangkok agreed to provide duty-free access of 6,998 Bangladeshi products to Thai market.
The Thai foreign secretary said under the East-west Asean Corridor Network, Vietnam is connected with Kunming of China through Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.
Under the North-south Asean Corridor, Singapore is connected with Kunming through Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar, he said.
The significance of this that both of them are functional and terminate at Kunming and the road between Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and China (BCIM) would connect Kolkata with Kunming through Dhaka, he said.
“As soon as the BCIM is materialised, you will be able to go from Bangladesh all the way to Vietnam and Singapore,” Sinhaseni said.
The Bangladesh foreign secretary supplemented: “This is the first discussion to get a link between BCIM and Asean corridor.”
He said naturally in the BCIM discussion, they had not looked at that possibility.
“It’s time that we should also look to how we can go beyond BCIM and link it to other already operational similar connectivity,” he said.
When contacted, Shahidul told the Dhaka Tribune that Bangladesh would discuss the huge potential with other three BCIM countries so that all can have the benefit of this connectivity.
Shahidul said four South Asian countries are linked after signing of BBIN motor vehicle agreement.
“If it gets linked both by roads and waterways to Southeast Asia and hopefully to the far east that will have a huge bloc for trade, services and investment. We are looking for all kind of possibilities,” Shahidul said.
He said they also discussed a possible shipping link with Ranon Shipping Port in Thailand with Chittagong or Mongla Port.
They also agreed to have technical level discussion to understand its feasibility in terms of business, he added.