Bangladesh will engage in trade diplomacy with Japan when its Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrive in Dhaka with a 50-member high-powered business delegation tomorrow.
“The focus of the visit is investment,” Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told a press conference yesterday, adding that the visit would encourage Japanese investors to invest in Bangladesh.
The government wanted to expand economic and technical relationship with Japan to implement the “Vision 2021” which was put forward by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to elevate Bangladesh’s status to middle-income country, Mahmood said.
Leading businessmen of both the countries, representatives of the Board of Investment and Japan External Trade Organisation would take part in the Japan-Bangladesh Economic Forum to be held in Dhaka tomorrow, he said.
During the visit, exclusive economic zones for Japanese investors would also be discussed, he said. Bangladesh agreed to provide some 500 acre lands for the Japanese investors exclusively when Sheikh Hasina visited Tokyo in May.
During the first meeting of the Bangladesh-Japan Joint Public-Private Economic Dialogue on August 21, both the parties discussed investment barriers in Bangladesh, the minister added.
“The Japanese investors are likely to invest in energy, power, infrastructure, information technology, textiles and RMG, pharmaceuticals, auto-mobiles and some other sectors,” he informed.
Relaxation of ROO
Bangladesh will seek Japanese assistance to allow more export to their country.
“We hope that there will be progress in relaxing the rules of origin for exporting knitwear, jute and jute products, home and oven textiles, and table wear,” the foreign minister said.
Dhaka requested the Japanese prime minister in May to waive duties on the products and it expected progress during this visit, he said.
Comprehensive Partnership
Bangladesh-Japan relationship has been elevated to comprehensive partnership level and the Japanese premier’s visit is expected to boost the relationship.
A joint statement issued by Hasina and Abe in May said the two prime ministers launched the “Japan-Bangladesh Comprehensive Partnership” and both also decided to detail the modalities at the
earliest. “Abe will reiterate Japanese assistance to the mega projects announced in the joint statement,” Mahmood added.