On a day we remember Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's thundering call for our freedom and independence, it is another one of Bangabandhu's guiding principles -- of friendship to all and malice to none -- that continues to be the foundation of our foreign policy.
In recent years, Bangladesh has continued to live by this principle, and has recognized the importance of building relations with other nations. This will be particularly important as we get closer and closer to graduating from a least developed country (LDC) to a middle-income economy, thereby losing out on many of the benefits afforded to LDCs.
To that end, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina calling for forming a joint trade and investment committee by Bangladesh-Qatar governments is testament to the fact that we continue to explore avenues to strengthen Bangladesh, while simultaneously providing value to nations we partner with.
The PM correctly identified that the establishment of a joint business forum would bring the two countries' private sectors under a single platform -- and this would result in a mutually beneficial economic partnership.
There is no doubt that Qatar, with its resources, can potentially invest in a myriad of different sectors in Bangladesh -- ranging from infrastructures, logistics, energy, and agriculture. The onus is now on the two governments to make this happen, and in a manner that is beneficial to both nations.
If we are to successfully build Smart Bangladesh, we must improve our business and investment climate significantly. For that to happen, establishing economic ties with other nations along with having the complementing policies to ensure that there are no bottlenecks created in establishing those ties will play a major role.
