South Korea assured Bangladesh of putting more efforts into levelling the balance of bilateral trade between the countries.
The assurance came at the second Bangladesh–South Korea foreign secretary-level meeting, officially termed as Foreign Office Consultation, held in Seoul yesterday, said a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque led the Bangladesh delegation, while the South Korean delegation was led by its First Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yong.
The meeting expressed satisfaction with the growing bilateral trade between Bangladesh and South Korea, but it also highlighted the balance of bilateral trade that is heavily in favour of South Korea.
At present, the bilateral trade volume stands at $1.7bn.
The Korean side identified the imports of industrial components and raw materials by the Korean companies operating in Bangladesh as a major reason for the imbalance and assured to put more efforts to reduce the gap. Both sides acknowledged that there were huge untapped potentials that needed to be harnessed to improve upon the current level of trade.
Shahidul also apprised his Korean counterpart about the possibility of importing pharmaceutical products, ceramics, more jute and jute products from Bangladesh.
He emphasised that big Korean companies may consider taking advantage of the prevailing, very competitive investment incentives by investing in the Special Economic Zones in Bangladesh. The issue of Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) also came up in the bilateral discussion.
The Bangladesh side requested for Korean support in infrastructural improvement including road and rail connectivity.
The Korean side informed that they had already increased the quota for Bangladeshi workers in Korea to 4,600 per year from this year. In this regard, Bangladesh side requested for employing Bangladeshi sailors in the Korean ships.
The vice minister appreciated the Bangladesh proposal and assured the foreign secretary that they would give due consideration to this matter.
The Korean side also apprised their Bangladeshi counterpart of their expertise in manufacturing training or combat aircraft and hi-tech defence system and expressed hope that Bangladesh would consider procuring said defence items.
The Bangladesh side requested the Korean side to consider establishing direct air connectivity between Dhaka and Seoul, which the Korean side took due note of.