The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Visiting leaders of the Bangladesh-British Chamber of Commerce (BBCC) yesterday offered to set up a training institute for human resource development in Bangladesh under joint venture.

The offer came at a meeting between the BBCC leaders and the leaders of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) at its conference room. BBCC Chairman Dr. Wali Tasar Uddin made the proposal on behalf of the organisation. "We want to promote investment, joint venture initiatives for training, research and development opportunities between the traders in Bangladesh and the UK," he told the meeting.

FBCCI president Mir Nasir Hossain, who chaired the meeting, supported the idea and urged the non-resident Bangladeshis in the UK, who mainly represent the BBCC, not to concentrate their investment only in Sylhet.

"You should look for business beyond Sylhet region as well," he said.

The FBCCI chief said British consultants in the engineering, water; agriculture and business service sectors feature a prominent role. "UK financial service continues to play an important role in the trade and development."

He said there are good prospects for technical and marketing collaboration in several sectors like fish processing, food and vegetable processing, fish hatcheries, education and health sectors.

Bangladesh and the UK have very substantial business relation from Bangladeshi point of view, with the bilateral trade volume at US$ 1.45 billion.

Of this, Bangladesh's annual export to UK is about US$ 1.7 billion with US$ 899 million surplus while its import from UK is US$ 274.56 million.

FBCCI vice presidents Mohammad Ali, Dewan Sultan Ahmed, directors- Abul Kashem Ahmed, Harunur Rashid, BBCC senior vice chairman Saad Gazi, director S I Azad Ali, Bangladesh chapter president Hizkil Gulzar were, among others, on the occasion.