Armed with duty-free treaty with India, Bangladesh is aiming $1 billion export by this June and has also begun wooing Indian companies to invest in the neighbouring country with SEZs targeting only Indian companies.
"With duty-free export to India, we are expecting the Bangladeshi export should increase to $1 billion by June 2012 from $500 million last year," India Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry President AM Ahmad said here today on the sidelines BCIM Business Forum meet.
Ahmad who is also the chairman of Nitol-Niloy Group was also developing two 100 acres each industrial zones with SEZ status in the country - one for garment in Kishoregunj near Dhaka and another multi-product in Chattak, Sylhet.
State Bank of India in Bangladesh was also supporting the projects.
"We are targeting Indian garment manufacturers at places like Tirupur and Ludhiana for garment SEZ and we are receiving positive feedback," Ahmad said.
While the multi-product SEZ will try to attract Indian companies to invest with an aim to export to north-eastern states.
Ahmad said Bangladesh offers huge cheap manpower and duty-free export across the globe with Least Developed Country status being another major attraction for these SEZs.