India and Bangladesh have “scripted a golden chapter” in the partnership under the "visionary" leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
India’s state minister for external affairs V Muraleedharan made the comment at a virtual conference on “Doing Business with Bangladesh: Opportunities and Challenges” during the pandemic.
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised the event.
Muraleedharan mentioned that “there is a mutual desire to further strengthen the relationship in areas that will help bring benefits to people on the two sides”.
He said that since 2014, there have been major developments in the bilateral relationship, including the two countries having ratified the land boundary agreement, settled maritime boundary and signed agreements on connectivity.
India has increased assistance to Bangladesh, making it the largest recipient of our concessional aid, implemented agreement to supply 1076 MW of power to Bangladesh, issued 7.4 million visas to Bangladesh nationals and implemented more than 40 projects in areas such as sanitation, waste management, restoration, health, etc. under grant-in-aid.
He further said that he was certain that cooperation between the countries can help overcome the economic effects of COVID-19 pandemic.
Muhammad Imran, Bangladesh High Commissioner to India, mentioned that the India Bangladesh bilateral relationship today touches almost every aspect of activity including political, trade, investment, security, border, water management, power, cultural exchanges, etc.
He said that in the current COVID context, it is more imperative that the two countries complement and cooperate to bring great benefit to both countries in areas where they have competitive advantage.
Riva Ganguly Das, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, emphasized that the geographical proximity and road and river water port connectivity between the two countries provide us many opportunities which we can leverage.
She mentioned that turning the COVID crisis into an opportunity, the Indian and Bangladesh railways have worked together to ensure smooth flow of goods through the railway links that exist between the two countries.
She noted that Bangladesh railways had increased its monthly allocation of freight trains to Indian railways by approximately thirty-three percent for the month of June which was very positive.
Executive Chairman of Bangladesh Investment Development Authority Sirazul Islam, FBCCI President Sheikh Fazle Islam, Managing Director of the Exim Bank of India David Rasquinha, Director General CII Chandrajit Banerjee, and President of the India Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry Abdul Matlub Ahmad spoke at the event.
This was then followed by a Panel Discussion on “Enhancing India – Bangladesh Trade and Investments” which was chaired by P Harish, Additional Secretary (ER) of the India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
Various senior industry members participated in the discussion.
Harish emphasised on bringing down the cost of doing business and also facilitating mutual investments between the two countries and creating value chains in various sectors including textiles, leather, footwear and food processing among others.
