Commerce Minister Khondaker Abdul Muktadir and Australian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Susan Ryle have stressed expanding and institutionalising cooperation between Bangladesh and Australia in trade, investment, skills development and research.
At a meeting at the commerce ministry at the Secretariat on Thursday, the two sides discussed in detail deepening economic relations by building trade-negotiation capacity and expanding mutual cooperation in research, education, agriculture, livestock, investment and other areas. Commerce ministry secretary Md Ataur Rahman Khan was present.
The commerce minister said the government was planning long-term, institutional training programmes to build officials’ skills in international trade — particularly World Trade Organisation (WTO) law and trade negotiations. A research and study centre was being set up to this end, with a plan to develop it into a regional hub for exchanging knowledge and skills in future.
He said project directors’ skills were very important for the successful implementation of the country’s development projects, and that specialised training programmes were being launched to build their capacity.
In response, Australian High Commissioner Susan Ryle said Australia was keen to help with such long-term capacity-development programmes. She said that while training had been carried out in a scattered way in the past, talks were under way on more planned and sustained programmes this time, covering trade negotiations, the legal aspects of international agreements and policymaking skills. She also mentioned the possibility of involving other development-partner organisations.
The talks also covered post-graduation trade benefits after Bangladesh’s exit from least-developed-country (LDC) status, Bangladesh’s position in the international trading system and future market access. Both sides stressed continuing regular dialogue on these matters.
The Australian High Commissioner said bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Australia currently stood at about $5.5 billion and was rising steadily. New scope for cooperation had opened up in areas such as education, transnational education, renewable energy, agriculture, food processing and business investment, she said.
She also said an Australian business delegation was planning to visit Bangladesh soon, which would play an important role in expanding trade and investment. The talks also covered the potential to export high-quality Australian beef to Bangladesh and cooperation on halal certification, animal traceability and modern livestock management to that end.
At the end of the meeting, both sides expressed their determination to raise Bangladesh-Australia relations to a more multidimensional, sustainable and strategic level.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report