Bangladesh and the United Kingdom (UK) are set to establish a platform for holding trade and investment related dialogues to facilitate future trading relationships between the two countries, officials said.
The two countries are now scrutinising the terms of reference (ToR) for a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to be signed for setting up of the platform styled 'United Kingdom (UK)-Bangladesh Trade and Investment Dialogue'.
The platform aims at facilitating the "deepest possible" future trading relationship between the two countries. It would also consider all options towards "strengthening their future trading arrangements".
"The two sides, at the dialogues, will review trade and investment activity between the parties as a means to identify the opportunities for expanding the activities further," according to the draft ToR.
The two countries would consider specific trade and investment matters of interest for both the parties in the dialogues.
Both the countries would identify and work to remove barriers to the growth of trade in goods and services and investment between the two nations, the ToR mentioned.
The two sides would also seek advice from the private sector, where appropriate, on matters related to the dialogue's activities.
The MoU would be signed between the two countries and represented by UK department for international trade and the commerce ministry of Bangladesh.
The secretary of the commerce ministry would lead the Bangladesh side while the British High Commissioner in Dhaka would head the UK side.
In mid-February this year, British High Commissioner in Dhaka Robert Chatterton Dickson and Bangladesh Commerce Secretary Dr Jafar Uddin met at a dialogue on bilateral trade relations.
The two sides discussed issues of cooperation in the areas like generalised system of preferences (GSP), Bangladesh's graduation from least developed country status, cooperation in investment, access of Bangladeshi professionals to UK service sectors, trade facilitation, ease of doing business, financial sector development, taxation and intellectual property protection.
Bangladesh exports goods worth £3.2 billion to UK while it imports goods worth £811 million from there per year.
