To explore new trading opportunities and build closer partnership with the neighboring countries, a two-day long CWBTA Eastern India Trade Summit-2019 was inaugurated in Kolkata on Monday. FBCCI President Sheikh Fazle Fahim participated at the summit. he led a business delegation of Bangladesh, said a statement received here. The summit has created a platform to interact between the business leaders of partner countries on business opportunities, suggestions for ease of foreign trade, product basket and informative exchanges. Minister and Mayor of Kolkata Firhad Hakim inaugurated the summit as the chief guest. Finance Minister of West Bengal Dr. Amit Mitra was also present. High government officials and business leaders from Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and India are participating at the summit. The summit is organised by the Confederation of West Bengal Trade Associations. FBCCI President Sheikh F Fahim presented a paper after the inaugural session of the summit. In his paper, Sheikh Fahim mentioned about the liberal and flexible investment regime of Bangladesh offering tax holiday, tax exemptions, accelerated depreciation, tariff refund, double taxation prevention, 100 percent foreign ownership, full repatriation of capital invested from foreign sources etc. The FBCCI president said about Bangladesh’s competitive strengths in apparel, leather goods, pharmaceuticals, frozen seafood, ceramics, jute products, ICT, FMCG, home appliance and others are leading the way for business diversification. The private sector leader mentioned that, as Bangladesh is a transitioning economy, it is imperative that our bilateral ties reflect the potential opportunities to deepen the cooperation in joint high tech research, development and innovation JVs on light, medium and heavy industries. Knowledge transfer to transition from 3rd IR to 4th IR including service sector cooperation in ICT, nanotechnology, robotics, IOT, cyber security, AI, EV, among others, they said. The delegation is expected to return to Dhaka tomorrow.
