Bangladesh has untapped business potential: Minister

Manama : Bangladesh has a huge potential for trade and investment, particularly for Bahrain, said Muhammad Abdul Mannan, Minister of State for Finance & Planning of Bangladesh, yesterday. 

Two-way trade and investment is almost non-existent at the moment, Mannan told DT News in an interview yesterday. He said that pharmaceutical and textiles industry are areas that Bangladesh could help Bahrain with. 

“In Bangladesh the private sector is now in total control, 90 per cent of the economy is of the private sector. There are many areas that Bahrain and Bangladesh could collaborate in, such as the medical sector especially the pharmaceutical industry, which is growing fast in Bangladesh. ICT sector is also an area we could cooperate in,” Mannan who is currently in Bahrain on an official visit, said. 

“Bahrain can also import textiles from us, we are the top country in the world for it. We could send seafood, vegetables etc to Bahrain. I have met with the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry officials today, they said that in the next two to three months, a trade delegation from Bahrain could visit Bangladesh,” he added. 

Minister of Finance, Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa met Mannan earlier in the day. “We spoke about our trade and investment relationship and how we can go further,” he said. 

“I briefed the Minister about the issues of Rohingya, because we are housing a million Rohingya, bearing expenses related to feeding them and taking care of them and it’s not something that is easy for a country like Bangladesh. The Minister agreed that more needs to be done for the Rohingya. He said that more steps could be taken through the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation,” he added. 

“We also spoke about the issue of terrorism and how it affects the muslim nations. It is a menace that we need to tackle,” she said.

He also met members of the Bangladeshi community. “They mentioned that the embassy is not very spacious and it needs improvements. They want a bigger and better embassy building. There is also a strong need of building a school for the community, we have a school but the space is not enough. I was told that the Bahrain government has offered a piece of land so we need to build a school there. The community has asked funding from the government for this,” he said.