We welcome the government’s decision to open six more commercial counsellor offices abroad as part of efforts to help Bangladesh earn $50bn from garment exports by 2021.
New offices and trained advisers in Seoul, Geneva, Kunming, Istanbul, Singapore City, and Pretoria will be able to provide much valuable assistance to our private sector exporters.
The government should be doing more to help entrepreneurs in all our industries cultivate and grow new markets. Diversification of products, exports, and markets is the best way to both create jobs and safeguard businesses and workers from changes in the world economic climate.
Commercial counsellor officers offer a practical way to give support to exporters and to further our country’s interests. We should actively work to improve and add to Bangladesh’s existing 19 commercial counsellor offices, by providing more resources and improving training of officers.
On occasion in the past, and recently, our nation’s interests and image have been let down by diplomatic impasses, which have been complicated by the use of injudicious or inappropriate language by some senior ministers and officials. The government needs to act more strategically by focusing more on practical support and consistent, tactful international negotiations, in order to make the best use of its resources. This is also more likely to deliver nationally desired results, such as lower trade barriers and tariffs.
The government should set SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound) objectives to our diplomatic representatives around the world so they can work better together towards national goals.
