Fast-developing Bangladesh attracts Turkish entrepreneurs

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Turkish Ambassador to Bangladesh Mustafa Osman Turan has stated his country eye an increased investment on Bangladesh with a substantial jump on bilateral trade volume through product diversification as Bangladesh’s economy is growing fast.

“We visit a Bangladesh that includes a very bright upcoming. Its economy keeps growing quickly like ours. Turkish investors are keen to invest in Bangladesh since it offers beautiful incentives for foreign buyers,” he told UNB within an interview at his office.

Ambassador Turan who found Bangladesh just before the Covid-19 pandemic said a good prominent Turkish company might invest US$ 100 million found in LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) sector in Chattogram. “That will be an initial investment.” 

He said improving trade between your two countries, boosting purchase in Bangladesh, boosting cultural and people-to- persons ties are among his priorities during his tenure in Bangladesh.

“As an envoy, there’s constantly a desire to accomplish something more,” Ambassador Turan said, adding that he is lucky to see the great atmosphere in place designed by his predecessors to take forward the relations to a new height.

The envoy, who also served in Italy, Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Austria, Afghanistan and Belgium, laid focus on product diversification to greatly help grow trade between your two countries. “Our economies are growing quite quickly. We’re happy our economical and trade relations happen to be enhancing. We’re expecting better trade volume between your two countries.”

The Turkish envoy said they buy a lot of jute products from Bangladesh and can explore the areas saying both countries can usually diversify their trade.

“Bangladesh has a quite strong pharmaceutical industry, developing IT sector,” he said adding that agro industries, light engineering, program sector, tourism and wellbeing sector are actually some promising regions of cooperation.

The bilateral trade volume between the two countries is currently around US$ 1 billion and the Ambassador said there is a scope to improve it further.

Ambassador Turan said: “The trade volume between your two countries found in the first 10 a few months of the existing year stood at US$754 million and the figure is the same what we'd seen in the first 10 months of 2019.”

“That’s good news certainly! We placed the same degree of trade regardless of the pandemic where various other countries are enduring a significant drop within their trade volumes. This season, the trade harmony is towards Bangladesh as Bangladesh is normally selling a whole lot of jute products to Turkey,” he described.

Key commodities exported to Bangladesh from Turkey are recycleables, agriculture and foods, textile and agriculture machinery and textile chemicals, while Turkey imports jute yarns & twine, jute companies’ knitwear and readymade garments.

Discussing Turkish companies’ existence in Bangladesh, the Ambassador stated Turkey's leading residence appliance company Arçelik bought majority shares of Singer Bangladesh and managed to get quite profitable.

The Turkish company thinks Singer Bangladesh's business will benefit significantly from the sale as Arçelik is a much larger and financially more robust company with a commitment to, and a worldwide reputation in the house appliance sector.

The Ambassador said the Turkish investors are interested to invest in a particular economic zone as Bangladesh offers quite attractive incentives for investment.

“We’re likely to organise a good virtual conference among businesses of the two countries,” Ambassador Turan said.

Leading executives of the Bangladesh Investment Production Authority (BIDA), Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI) and Foreign Monetary Relations Board (DEİK) of Turkey will need part on the discussion to identify regions of cooperation and explore opportunities jointly. Turkish contracting corporations are also considering mega infrastructure assignments in Bangladesh.

50 Years of Independence
The Turkish Ambassador, who joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey in 1992, highly appreciated Bangladesh’s growth, specifically the achievements made during the last a decade saying 50 years have been a significant significant journey for Bangladesh.

“Bangladesh is progressing in a speedy method with an extraordinary development achieved within the last 10 years under the leadership of Primary Minister Sheikh Hasina. In the last 10 years, Bangladesh has turned into a model for many developing countries,” he explained.

The Turkish Ambassador said Bangladesh has got a solid foundation distributed by Father of the country Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, now Bangladesh is a much-respected nation globally.

He said Bangladesh’s foreign plan - “friendship to all, malice to none”, is coinciding with Turkey’s foreign insurance policy motto “peace at home, peace on the globe.”

The Ambassador said Bangladesh is building significant contributions to global peace through its robust engagement with the UN peacekeeping operations.

Therefore, it'll be an extremely well-deserved celebration for Bangladesh, its people and the federal government of Bangladesh, he said.

Talking about Turkish occurrence in the mega celebrations in March 26, the Ambassador said they are looking into the way the situation evolves pursuing Covid-19 pandemic.

He said Primary Minister Sheikh Hasina, even while practically inaugurating the newly-built Bangladesh Embassy complex in Ankara on September 14, invited President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan through Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. On the other hand, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen also handed over the invitation to his Turkish counterpart to go to Bangladesh.

“We’ll see how the Covid-19 problem evolves in March following calendar year. We don’t know however how the circumstance will be at that time,” the Ambassador said.

Ambassador Turan expressed satisfaction over his dialogue with several ministers in Bangladesh regarding cooperation between the two countries found in the coming years. “I am hoping to meet with Primary Minister Sheikh Hasina and Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury quickly.”

Hospital to Be Built
Responding to a concern, the Turkish Ambassador explained Turkey wants to set up a medical center in Bangladesh since it has vast experience in the health sector.

He said it is not yet decided if the hospital will be a specialized one or perhaps a general hospital but they plan to build it found in Dhaka. “That’s one of the big projects inside our mind. We wish to share our experience.”

The Ambassador said they would like to explore opportunities in medical tourism. “We offer very good health products and services. That’s why Turkey is becoming one of the top five locations for health tourism on the planet. Turkey could possibly be another destination for those Bangladeshis who get overseas for better treatment.”

He likewise said Turkey wants to raise cultural exchanges and academic cooperation to greatly help Turkish and Bangladeshi persons learn more about one another.

“It offers me much satisfaction that Turkish TV serials are becoming very popular found in Bangladesh,” said Ambassador Turan adding that relations around Turkish and Bengali countries own strong historical and cultural roots internet dating back before the base of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Solidarity amid Covid-19

The Turkish Ambassador appreciated Bangladesh’s efforts in working with the Covid-19 situation. “It’s great to observe that the situation is under control in Bangladesh. Bangladesh made it possible to cope with the situation in an exceedingly efficient way.”

He said this is a challenging circumstances for all the countries due to Covid-19 pandemic in fact it is period to help each other. “We must manage it with solidarity and unity. We stay in solidarity with Bangladesh.”

The Turkish envoy said after instruction from President Erdoğan Turkish Ministry of Health provided five tonnes of medical supplies to Bangladesh including masks, Personal Protective Products (PPE) and ventilators.

He said Turkey provided medical items to 150 countries and Bangladesh is among those countries.

Source: http://www.theindependentbd.com

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