Bangladeshi Minister Calls on Turkish Investors to Enter Bangladesh

Istanbul, Turkey | June 12, 2009 by D-8 Secretariat

Trade volume between Turkey and Bangladesh is currently around $500 million per year

Bangladeshi Trade Minister Muhammad Faruk Khan was in İstanbul earlier this month to participate in the İstanbul World Trade Ministers Summit and the Turkey-World Trade Bridge 2009, organized by the Turkish Confederation of Industrialists and Businessmen (TUSKON). In an interview with Turkish Today’s Zaman, he said his country is full of investment opportunities, mostly untouched, waiting to be utilized by profit-seeking entrepreneurs.

He particularly emphasized the incentives the Bangladeshi government is offering to interested investors. For example, the government has dedicated a separate industrial zone to Turkish businessmen with incentives such as land delivery and cheap labor and energy. Khan claims that Bangladesh has the cheapest labor costs in the world and that only a few other countries can match it in terms of the energy costs in this industrial zone. A company may hire an unskilled worker for a monthly salary of between $100 and $150 depending on the location, he said. There is one more very lucrative advantage that an investor must consider, he underlined: There are no legal barriers to foreign companies transferring their profits to their home countries. Khan also mentioned the free-trade agreements his country has with the European Union and the US. These agreements mean companies manufacturing in Bangladesh will have the opportunity to sell to these major markets without being subjected to any quota limitations, customs duties or trade barriers. “This is a big advantage that a businessman can hardly turn his back on,” he stressed.

Muhammad Faruk Khan called on Turkish businessmen to evaluate investment opportunities in his country

Khan praised Turkish industrialists as being highly skilled in virtually every sector and asked for investments in all fields, particularly pharmaceuticals, textiles and construction. “We will also welcome any investment in the power-generation sector,” he added. Trade volume between Turkey and Bangladesh, Khan noted, is currently around $500 million per year. During the discussions in the last couple days, the Turkish state officials and businessmen, as well as himself as the Bangladeshi Trade minister, have committed that the trade volume has to increase to $1 billion in a short while.

Bangladesh and Turkey are to sit for Joint Economic Commission meeting in Ankara next November when entire range of bilateral economic and trade matters will be reviewed and new ways of cooperation worked out.

Turkey is now the 15th largest economy in the world and 6th largest in Europe. Turkish State Minister for International Trade Zafer Caglayan told reporters, during the Turkey-World Trade Bridge 2009, that his country has focused on exploring new markets for trade and investment in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Middle East without turning back to Europe.

He was optimistic that Turkey will come out of the negative impact of global economic crisis that will hit its export and employment sectors by next year. He said since the global recession is a global crisis, a global solution will have to be found out to overcome this crisis.

Asked how LDCs could get benefit from a 3-day business summit that ended in Istanbul last week, Zafer said Turkey once belonged to LDC. The LDCs and developing countries must work together with ‘win-win’ approach in trade and economic cooperation that support the balance of trade between the countries.

He said one country may have advantage in one field and another country may have advantage in another field. This needs to be integrated through mutual discussions for mutual benefit for balanced bilateral trade.

D-8 Organization Secretary General, welcomes this move of bilateral trade relations between Bangladesh-Turkey, as a bolstering move toward the deepening of intra-trade relation within D-8 Organization. Dipo Alam, the Secretary General, said that this move is in line with the PTA D-8 held in KL Summit recently, whose RoO was approved by memberstates. As for the industrial cooperation as promoted by Turkey, D-8 hopes that this issue can be further studied and implemented, as in accordance with the result of the 4th WG on Industry in Bali, Indonesia, in June 27-28 August 2008. “We also hope that this kind of initiatives, can increase the interest of our other memberstates as well,” said Dipo Alam.

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