Bangladesh, Indonesia move forward for free trade agreement

Bangladesh and Indonesia have moved forward to sign a preferential trade agreement (PTA) for duty-free access to each other markets.

The two countries hold the first-ever consultation meeting on Thursday, to boost their bilateral relations. Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic reality, it was held virtually.

Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry Director-General for Asia-Pacific and Africa Abdul Kadir Jailani led their respective sides.

The two countries’ foreign ministries also signed a letter of intent on cooperation in diplomatic capacity building on the day.

During the firs-ever consultation, Masud sought duty-free access for Bangladesh’s potential export items including readymade garment (RMG). He also requested his counterpart not to impose any preventive measures on Bangladeshi goods imports.

Currently, the bilateral trade between the two Asian countries is in favour of Indonesia.

To minimize the trade imbalance, the two countries on the occassion agreed to exchange business delegations and organise frequent trade fairs so that each of them gets a fair shot.

Masud suggested that the two countries can expand technical cooperation in extracting marine resources, fishing deep sea and protecting the coastal zones.

Indonesia’s delegation in the meeting agreed to sign the pending agreements on a priority basis, pursue sector-specific agenda and do the needful to expand the volume of bilateral trade and investment.

Besides, both sides agreed to promote cooperation on different social matters such as combating corruption, counter-terrorism, facilitating the advancement of science and technology innovation, exports, defence cooperation, climate change adaptation and mitigation, ethical migration, parliamentary exchange and pursuing sustainable development goals.

The meeting discussed that ordinary passport holders’ opportunity to visit both countries ‘free’ would contribute a lot to the broadening tourism sectors.

In the consultation, the two countries agreed to jointly celebrate the golden jubilee of the diplomatic relations in a befitting manner, and jointly organize events, such as cultural programmes, seminars, high-level visits, trade fairs, introducing direct flights on the Dhaka-Bali route and translation of biographies of the Father of the Nation of the two countries into Bahasa and Bengali languages.

Bangladesh also sought Indonesia’s continued support on Rohingya repatriation. In response, Indonesia assured that it will always be with Bangladesh on Rohingya and other issues.