The New Nation - Internet Edition

A discussion meeting between the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) and the delegation from Laos People's Democratic Republic was held at the Dhaka Sheraton Hotel on Sunday. The meeting was chaired by the DCCI Acting President M Shahjahan Khan The DCCI acting president said, “In order to promote long-term cooperation between our two LDCs countries, steps are necessary to enhance trade volume between the two friendly countries. We can establish chamber to chamber contacts to know more about each other’s potentials. We like to know more about Laos. We are aware that like Bangladesh, Laos is also running well in the RMG sector Bangladesh's RMG and spinning is fully dependent on the import of cotton, we can collaborate more in this sector”. He aadded that bilateral trade between Bangladesh & Lao s People's Democratic Republic is far below the potentials. During 2005-2006 our export to that country was only US$ 0.62 million and import was US $ 0.70 million At present major export items to Laos are: leather and woven garments and major imports from Laos PDR are. cotton, article of apparel and clothing accessories, tanning and dying extracts. We can increase our bilateral trade volume by exploiting trade and investment opportunities of the two countries he added.

Phonsavath Boupha. First Vice Foreign Minister of Lao People's Democratic Republic and Leader of the delegation said, Bangladesh is a member of ASEAN Region Forum and Lao PDR is also a member of this forum Bangladesh has a lot of prospective sectors such as; RMG. pharmaceuticals, ceramic. light engineering, leather, cement, steel and agri-based sector etc. and Lao PDR has also several prospective sectors these are hydro power, tourism, agribusiness, light manufacturing and service sector etc. He also said, Chamber to Chamber relation and exchanging trade and investment delegation of both countries are essential to strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries, Businessmen of both countries can find out way of increasing bilateral trade of the two LDC countries he mentioned.

Among others. DCCI Vice-President AI-Haj Md Alauddin Malik, DCCI Directors M.S. Shekil Chowdhury Manzur-Ur Rahman Ruskin, Haider Ahmed Khan FCA, Mr. Zafar Osman, Sayed Habibur Rahman. Asif Ibrahim, Alhaj-Abul Aziz Sarker, AI Haj Md Sharfudddin and M Salim Sulaiman took part in the discussion meeting.