Qatar-Bangladesh economic ties to witness major boost

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The Qatar-Bangladesh economic relations will see a serious boost in 2020 and beyond as both the countries are working aggressively to further expand and deepen the extent of cooperation in several new areas, which can include establishing a Qatar specific economic zone within the South Asian country , a senior adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh told The Peninsula in an exclusive interview.

Bangladesh, which is one among the fastest growing economies within the world, has ramped up efforts to realize industrialization and economic diversification to become an export oriented manufacturing hub within the region. The country is currently developing some 100 Special Economic Zones (SEZs), which are uniquely designed to be country specific. a number of the main countries which have already started developing their country-specific SEZs in Bangladesh include China (having 2 zones), India, South Korea , and Japan among others. Several European countries have also expressed interests within the programme.

'I request and invite Qatari businessmen to return and take an exclusive economic zone which can be just for Qataris. These country-specific economic zones are going to be well-connected with world-class infrastructure, including road, rail and deep-sea port connectivity, Salman F Rahman, Adviser to Prime Minister of Bangladesh told this newspaper.

Rahman, who was here recently leading a trade delegation, added: 'We are working hard to deepen and strengthen the bilateral relations between Qatar and Bangladesh, which include increasing the trade volume. We also are organizing events to extend B2B contacts where tons of individuals are meeting. Such engagements will help developing business, trade and investment.

Rahman may be a close aid of the Prime Minister, a member of Bangladesh's parliament and a prominent businessman, who is advising the govt on Private Industries and Investment related issues.

'Before we started importing Qatari gas, the balance of trade was in our favour, which is currently skewed towards Qatar. But that's not important for us. It's an ongoing cycle of trade. what's more important is to optimize the potential and boost the quantity of bilateral trade for mutual benefits, he said.

Bangladesh, under the industrialization programme, is offering country specific economic zones, and alluring the Qatari government to require one among them where Qatari businessmen can come and invest, both for the domestic market also as export to other markets within the region. Bangladesh, with over 165 million populations, is strategically located between China and India, and providing quick access to a market size of over $8.5 trillion.

The country, with limited area of precious arable land, is trying to develop industrial growth during a more planned manner to guard the random conversion of arable land for agriculture, which is extremely vital to the country.

Bangladesh has also been providing special specialise in digital economy and IT services. And today it's one among the few countries within the world with 4G broadband network of fiber cable up to the village level, and has the second largest number of online workers after India.

The country is additionally developing several IT parks and dealing to introduce computer coding language at grade school level getting to have a military of computer programmers and IT workers to support the fourth technological revolution which can be driven by AI, robotics, automation, quantum computing and nanotechnology.

Providing an summary of the Bangladeshi economy, he said that one among the best achievements of the country is its inclusive growth story which has lifted many people out of poverty. The poverty ratios have dropped to 21.8 percent (in 2018) from 56.7 percent in 1991, and extreme poverty ratio has dropped to 11.3 percent, which is to be completely eradicated by next year.

According to Rahman the country is adding 2 million affluent and middle income people per annum boosting the mixture demand.

The country is enjoying a stable currency and rate of exchange , and over the last several years, it's attracted billions of dollars of investment from Japanese and Chinese companies.

'As Qatar has opened several sectors of its economy allowing one hundred pc FDI in those sectors, we do an equivalent in Bangladesh. during this global environment we are following an equivalent strategies in terms of attracting investment. Together we will do tons of things by establishing joint ventures, especially within the field of agro-industry and manufacturing sector for mutual benefits. one among the important attractions for investing in Bangladesh is its domestic market also preferential market access to the neighbouring countries. We are a young country which enjoys huge demographic dividends with huge skilled labours, with average age below 27 years, he noted.

Bangladesh has witnessed an outstanding growth in its exports, especially for denim and apparels, which has increased by quite 260 percent over the last one decade. Its annual export volume has increased to $40bn in 2019 from $11bn in 2009.

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