Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has stressed on implementation of a free trade agreement (FTA) among member countries of the BIMSTEC.
The minister made the statement while inaugurating the BIMSTEC 21st trade negotiation committee (TNC) meeting at Sonargaon Hotel in the city on Sunday, reports UNB.
Tofail Ahmed said although the framework agreement of the BIMSTEC was signed long ago in 2004, the countries have failed to end the deal process through signing several required constituent agreements.
The minister sought negotiations with utmost sincerity, devotion and consideration of others' interest in order to make it a win-win for all partner countries.
Tofail Ahmed also urged the bloc to find ways to increase the intra-region trade.
He mentioned that Bangladesh is very much interested about sub-regional and bilateral FTA with different countries as it will graduate from the group of least developed countries (LDCs) in 2024 and there will be no existing market facilities for Bangladesh after its graduation.
Nineteen officials of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) member countries -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand - participated in the meeting.
The function was also addressed by Commerce Secretary Shubhashish Bose.
BIMSTEC officials believe if the free trade agreement is implemented, it will help the intra-BIMSTE trade grow up to US$ 240 billion from the current US$ 40 billion.
