The third border haat between Bangladesh and India will be inaugurated today to expedite border trade benefiting people in frontiers and to boost bilateral trade and commerce.
The border markets are located at Srinagar, Tripura, India and Purba Madhugram, Feni district of Bangladesh.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, its Senior Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamun Commerce and Industry Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman, Trade and Commerce Minister of Tripura Shri Tapan Chakraborty will attend the inaugural ceremony.
“We are going to inaugurate the third Boarder Haat located in Feni,” said Tofail Ahmed at a media briefing after a curtsy meeting with Indian High Commissioner Pankaj Saran at the secretariat yesterday.
Bangladeshi products are being transported to Nepal and Bhutan through India, he said, adding that since Bangladesh does not have any transit agreement with India, its lorries cannot enter Indian territory, and so the vehicles of Nepal and Bhutan – having such treaties with India, reach Indian frontiers to pick up Bangladeshi goods.
“To remove this barrier we are working on transit issue,” said the minister.
In order to strengthen connectivity among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, a law on transit had been drafted but due to veto from Pakistan a consensus could not be reached, Ahmed said, adding that efforts are underway to find a bilateral solution.
The minister also said there was a question about the BSTI standard and India helped promote its test standard which will now be granted in the neighbouring country.
“We are working on ways of how to simplify process to do business and how to increase bilateral trade and commerce.”
The Indian government is providing Bangladesh with duty- and quota-free access of all products except alcohol, arms and tobacco, but there are some problems and we are working to remove these, said Ahmed.
Indian companies especially some big companies are looking to invest in Bangladesh.
If some of the investments can be materialised, it would help boost economic growth of both countries as well as enlarge export volume, said Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh Pankaj Saran.
India is committed to focusing on more trade, commerce and investment with Bangladesh as the priorities of present Indian government are development of India, development of South Asia, plus regional integration, said Pankaj.
Replying to a question, the Indian high commissioner said: “We are setting up more testing laboratories which did not exist five or ten years ago to ensure an identical standard for tests.”
The Indian government has provided funds for upgrading Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institutions (BSTI) and is negotiating an agreement between BSTI and Bureau of Indian Standard to ensure standardisation to enable further Bangladeshi export to India, said Pankaj.
Currently, there are two border haats at Kalaichar (India) – Baliamari (Bangladesh) and Balat (India) – Dolora (Bangladesh) on the Meghalaya-Bangladesh border.
The haat will remain open only for one day every week from 10am to 4pm. People living within five kilometres of the haat areas will be allowed to sell and buy locally produced goods.