Bangladesh is already considering adopting new payment methods developed in Hong Kong and Singapore as an alternative to move away from the Swift payment transfer system and save dollars.
The government instructed the Bangladesh Bank to look into the new systems and act accordingly.
After a meeting of the cabinet presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday at the Ganabhaban, its Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said: "[The new systems] are much more comfortable. [The cabinet] asked [the central bank] to explore them."
Governor of the central bank Fazle Kabir, who attended the meeting, has already begun moving in that direction. He has been given several days to come up with results, Anwarul said.
The central bank is bringing in around $4-5 billion in funds from Hong Kong, which offered to open a letter of credit (LC) to pay off producers at a much lower interest rate if Bangladesh enters an agreement with them, the cabinet secretary added.
"[They offered us] to make payment in cash for our exports… it is very convenient for the garment industry."
Singapore is also offering similar benefits, he said.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet cleared the draft of Bengali and English versions of regional trade agreement (RTA) Policy, 2022 in a bid to protect and expand the country's export markets overcoming the post-graduation challenges.
Since Bangladesh has graduated from the status of a least developed country (LDC), it needs to come to trade agreements with many countries, said the cabinet secretary.
"To protect and expand our export markets as well as ensure duty-free access for our products by overcoming the challenges of LDC graduation, we've taken steps to go for regional trade agreements. So, the policy has been taken for it (signing RTAs)," he said.
Besides, the meeting approved the draft of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation Act, 2022 in a view to making the industrial entities under the BSCIC more effective, said the Cabinet Secretary.
The proposed law will particularly promote women entrepreneurs as the existing law -Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation Act, 1957- is an old one, which hadn't focused on women properly.
The cabinet approved the proposal for providing the transit facilities to Nepal under the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal-Motor Vehicle Agreement (BBIN-MVA) by cancelling its earlier decision over the Operating Modalities for the Carriage of Transit Cargo between Nepal and Bangladesh.
