Two border markets between Bangladesh and India will start operations on July 16, said commerce minister Faruk Khan on Sunday.
'We are expected to inaugurate a border market between Lauwaghar in Sunamganj and Balat in Meghalaya on July 16 as the Indian commerce minister [Anand Sharma] assured that he would also participate in the inauguration ceremony,' Faruk told New Age on Sunday.
He said another border market between Baliamari in Kurigram and Kalaichar in Meghalaya would also start operations the same day.
People from the two countries will be able to trade at the markets with their national currencies, Faruk said. The markets will also have currency conversion facilities.
The agreement between India and Bangladesh on border markets has become operational, reported the Press Trust of India on Sunday. The two nations signed the agreement in October 2010.
Locally produced vegetables, food items, fruits, spices, minor local forest produces like bamboos, bamboo grass, and broom sticks can be traded at these markets, said the PTI report.
People from the two sides will be allowed to move across the border to the markets on specific days and time as decided by the authorities.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade in the Indian Commerce Ministry, which notified the arrangement, said sale of locally produced agriculture and household implements – hatchet, plough, axe, spade and chisel will also be allowed to be traded at these bazaars.
Vendors selling products at the markets will have to be residents of the area within five kilometre radius, the PTI report added.
Commerce ministry sources said more border markets would be set up on a pilot basis, if the two markets brought benefits for the two next-door neighbours.
The two nations first launched border trading in April 1972, just months after Bangladesh had come into existence, but the trading stopped one year later due to rampant smuggling in the border areas.
Source : New Age
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