After South Korea’s graduation from the LDC basket back in the 70s, the country put more emphasis on diversified export-oriented industrial sectors and that is why today South Korea is pioneer in manufacturing and exporting of electronics, chemicals, heavy industry, automobiles and machineries.
Bangladesh can replicate this transformation from labour intensive industries to export-oriented industrial sector to overcome the upcoming challenges of LDC graduation as well as to prepare for the future.
Speakers told these at a virtual dialogue on “Bangladesh-South Korea Trade and Investment Cooperation: In the context of LDC graduation” arranged by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry on Tuesday.
Senior Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Masud Bin Momen joined the event as chief guest while Kihak Sung, Chairman and CEO of Youngone Corporation joined as guest of honour. M Delwar Hossain, Ambassador of Bangladesh to South Korea joined the dialogue as special guest. President of Dhaka Chamber Rizwan Rahman in his opening remarks said South Korea was the 10th largest exporter to Bangladesh in 2021. In 2021, bilateral trade of Bangladesh and South Korea was around USD 1.525 billion with a negative balance of USD 727 million for Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has many other promising and priority industrial sectors like Agro & Food Processing, Plastic manufacturing, Jute and jute goods, light Engineering and automobiles sector, Hi-tech parks, 4IR technologies and structured economic zones where Korea can invest in the form of Joint venture, said Rizwan Rahman. Masud Bin Momen, Senior Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that S. Korea is our trusted partner and we always have assistance from the country. About 150 S. Korean companies are now in operation in Bangladesh that indicates their keenness about investing in Bangladesh.
He also expressed his hope that after Bangladesh’s LDC graduation, S. Korea may continue preferential treatment for Bangladeshi export items. Momen also said that government will give special focus to revisiting decades-old bilateral agreements, exploring the possibility of signing FTA to facilitate deeper partnership, regular exchange of trade missions and direct connectivity between Dhaka and Seoul.
Kihak Sung, Chairman and CEO of Youngone Corporation said that the investment of Youngone Corporation in Bangladesh is about USD 600 million.
In next five year time RMG export to S. Korea will reach to USD 1 billion, he hoped.
After LDC graduation, Kihak Sung said that Bangladesh should focus to sign a win-win FTA with S. Korea prior to a high level consultation. As S. Korean investment are coming to Bangladesh’s high-tech industries, therefore, stable and high quality energy supply is very important, he opined. M Delwar Hossain, Ambassador of Bangladesh to South Korea said that after LDC graduation we will be in need of robust product diversification to increase our export to South Korea to mitigate the trade gap.
He also mentioned that regular communication between the trade bodies of both the countries is also crucial for boosting bilateral trade. S. Korea is the fifth largest foreign investor in Bangladesh.
Jong Won Kim, Director General, Green Growth Department, KOTRA said that Bangladesh should now prepare itself to face the challenges of LDC graduation.
