As a neighbour of India, Bangladesh has enjoyed a long-standing trade relationship with the regional economic giant, and over the years, this relationship has taken many forms, and trading through the borders we mutually share has been one of the most important.
While modern-day bureaucracy sometimes means that this flow cannot operate quite as freely as it once did, regulating this flow both results in proper conduct when it comes to trading, while also ensuring that the common people get their fair share through taxes.
That is why it is such wonderful news that seven new border trade posts have been set up with the borders of the Seven Sisters region of India. Trade volume with the Seven Sisters region -- comprising Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim -- has consistently been low due to the lack of infrastructure. But hopefully, all that stands to change.
With the construction of these ports, not only will the volume of trade grow exponentially, the current trade volume will be brought under an official purview. Not only that, the local economies of parts of Bangladesh, like Sylhet, will get a significant boost.
A lot of vendors rely on illegally smuggled products from these places to run their shops. Once the ports are fully running, this will not be the case anymore.
Mutual trade, in an interconnected world, is always good. We have been showing exemplary growth when it comes to our economy, and these difficult pandemic-times, we have shown remarkable resilience. Let us keep the momentum going.