Dhaka, Hanoi agree to enhance trade, reduce gap

Bangladesh and Vietnam on Sunday agreed to work closely to achieve the target of enhancing bilateral trade volume to $1 billion and reduce trade gap.
The decision was made at the first-ever foreign office consultations, between the foreign ministries of the two countries in Dhaka on Sunday. 
Foreign secretary Md Shahidul Haque led the Bangladesh delegation while Vietnam vice-minister Dang Dinh Quy led his country. 
Bangladesh stressed the need for finding ways to address the existing trade gap in favour of Vietnam and requested Vietnam to relax the registration process and accept the bio-equivalence and traceability tests done in other ASEAN countries, according to a foreign ministry release. 
Both sides agreed that the trade volume was far less than the existing potentials.
Vietnam expressed interest to enhance bilateral trade volume and to facilitate investment in both the countries. 
Vietnam also agreed to find scopes of reducing trade gap, officials said. 
Bangladesh also sought deeper cooperation in the agriculture, fisheries and livestock sectors, particularly in agricultural research to develop stress tolerant and high yielding varieties of rice and tropical fruits, exchange of germplasm and developing sustainable pearl culture technology. 
Bangladesh also sought Vietnam’s cooperation in shipbuilding and ship breaking sectors. 
Vietnam expressed willingness to boost up bilateral cooperation in the education and tourism sectors.
The two sides also stressed the need for regular exchange of visits at political and functional levels to steer bilateral cooperation. 
Bangladesh also sought Vietnam’s support for Bangladesh’s initiative to become a ‘Sectoral Dialogue Partner’ of ASEAN and also to join the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation initiative. Vietnam agreed to facilitate Bangladesh’s initiatives.
Vietnam’s vice-minister called on state minister for foreign affairs M Shahriar Alam Sunday morning. 
Bilateral trade gap with Vietnam was over $5 million in financial year 2009-10 and it rose to $322 million in 2015-16.
Export to Vietnam was $65 million and import from the country was over $322 million in FY 2016.
Import from Vietnam, in the first 11 months of the current fiscal, was over $320 million and export was about $61 million.
Dang Dinh Quy would leave Dhaka today. 
(Source: New Age)