In a bid to boost bilateral trade and people-to-people contacts, Premier Sheikh Hasina has favoured reopening of the Bangladesh-India passenger train services in the routes which remained severed since 1965, a year after the two sides re-launched a rail link between Dhaka and Kolkata.
"We want to resume rail communications by connecting all severed rail lines for facilitating the traders to transport their commodities and other people for their easy movement," Hasina was quoted by the state-run BSS news agency as telling a high-profile 50-member Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) delegation here last night.
She said her government is interested in reopening the cross-border railways, abandoned following the 1965 Indo-Pak war when Bangladesh was eastern wing of Pakistan, for stronger connectivity between the two neighbouring countries to boost bilateral trade, investment and people-to-people contacts.
The Prime Minister disclosed that she has already contacted Indian Minister for Railways Mamata Banerjee about the re-run of trains along the derelict rails as the train service in the 400-km Dhaka-Kolkata route was re-launched on April 14 last year after 43 years of suspension.
Hasina also sought Indian cooperation so Bangladesh could transact trade and business through northwestern Banglabandh and Burimari land ports with Nepal and Bhutan as Dhaka already took steps to develop land ports located on the Bangla-India boarder to boost the regional trade.
"All trade and business should remain open for the regional countries for mutual trade and investment keeping intact people's interest," Hasina told the delegation led by FICCI Vice President Harsh C Mariwala, who suggested setting up of special economic zones in the boarding areas exclusively for Indian investment.
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Hasina said her government already planned to build such zones where, like others, Indian businessmen can also make their investment, but added that Export Processing Zones (EPZs) were already there in Comilla, Feni and Syedpur (Uttara EPZ) and the Indian businessmen could invest in these EPZs as they are close to the Bangladesh-India frontier.
Officials familiar with the talks, also joined by senior government ministers and Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), said huge gaps in bilateral trade and trade barriers also came up for discussion during yesterday's meeting.
Bangladesh has recently formed an inter-ministerial core group to explore means to eliminate critical trade barriers with India while the visiting high-power Indian business delegation urged the government to increase connectivity between the two countries to enhance trade.
Earlier reports said the committee was formed as the Commerce Ministry came out with a list of non-tariff and para tariff barriers imposed by Indian authorities in recent times. Bangladeshi entrepreneurs called for addressing the issue to reduce bilateral trade imbalance.
The FICCI delegation held a crucial meet with FBCCI on Monday during which the two sides called for enhanced trade cooperation between the two neighbours and turning Bangladesh into a regional manufacturing hub through massive investment.
Bangladesh suffered a significant large trade deficit with India as its imports from India were worth $3375.10 million against the exports amounting to $358.08 million in the 2007-2008 financial year.
In a statement earlier this week, FICCI said the bilateral trade could double by 2011, suggesting a multi-pronged action agenda for creating a favourable investment climate.
According to FICCI, India's trade with Bangladesh increased from $1 billion in 2001-02 to $3.17 billion in 2007-08, more than three folds, mainly on the back of a 79.4 per cent increase in India's exports.
But officials and business sources here claim that India put up barriers to discourage import of Bangladeshi goods.
Bangladesh, however, recently signed a bilateral investment and protection treaty with India to further strengthen the framework for trade and investment while officials said Dhaka recently planned to revive joint economic commissions with India and China to foster cooperation with the two major trade partners.
Analysts said the decision was a "major policy shift" of Hasina's government to rely more on bilateralism than multilateral arrangements for boosting trade and investment.