Apart from India, Russia, USA, China, UK, Australia, Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin American and other foreign countries, Bangladesh also wants to work closely with the Middle East and Gulf region on multiple fronts including trade and investment. We have noticed that a new dimension has recently been added in terms of Bangladesh’s diplomatic relations with the Middle East and Gulf countries, especially KSA, UAE and Qatar.
Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani’s two-day “historic” visit to Bangladesh will “strengthen ties” between the two countries. Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad expressed satisfaction over the existing bilateral cooperation in the energy sector and added that both sides would work together to further advance the engagement to a partnership level in near future. This was the first state-level incoming visit after the new government came to power in January this year.
This visit also coincided with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Qatar. During the visit, Bangladesh delegation led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the Qatar delegation led by Qatar Emir, productive bilateral talks were held.
Bangladesh and Qatar signed five agreements and five memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to enhance mutual cooperation between the two countries. President Mohammed Shahabuddin also sought Qatar’s investment in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in Bangladesh. The Head of the State urged the Qatar Emir to recruit more semi-skilled and skilled young manpower, IT experts, professionals and technicians from Bangladesh.
This visit will infuse fresh dynamism
into the multi-faceted
and multi-dimensional relationship between
the two countries
As the Bangladesh government has set up 100 SEZs for foreign investors Qatar investors can invest there in sectors like agro-production and processing, food packaging, smart agriculture and fertilizer production. Qatar investors can avail of the comprehensive incentives and support in investing in some areas like petro-chemical, energy, machinery, IT, electronics, ceramics, agri-business and food processing in the SEZs.
Qatar is a valued partner of Bangladesh in the Gulf region. So, Emir’s visit and signing of agreements and MoUs reflect the commitment of further expanding and deepening bilateral cooperation in days to come. We hope the agreements and MoUs signed by Qatar and Bangladesh will play a more effective role in the development of bilateral and multilateral ties between the two countries.
This visit will infuse fresh dynamism into the multi-faceted and multi-dimensional relationship between the two countries. We think Quatar Emir’s visit was a successful and a fruitful one. During the bilateral talks, both sides appreciated the longstanding bilateral cooperation between the two countries and discussed the means and ways to enhance and take forward the ties through increased interaction, people-to-people contact and exchange of visit at all levels including official, business and political leadership.
The issues that came up for discussion were expediting collaboration on trade and investment, energy and power, manpower, defence, education, agriculture and food security etc. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina deeply appreciated the remarkable advancement and transformation of Qatar as an advanced knowledge-based multi-cultural society.
Therefore, we believe Quatar Emir’s visit will pave the way for further strengthening the multifaceted partnership between Bangladesh and Qatar. And the visit will start generating tremendous goodwill and understanding between the two countries immediately.