An 86-member business delegation of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) attended the Turkiye-Bangladesh business forum arranged by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday.
The delegation left Dhaka for Istanbul, Turkiye on Tuesday for a four-day visit to explore new trade and investment opportunities, said a press release on Thursday.
In the forum’s welcome address Burhan Polat, executive board member of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce said that Bangladesh is one of the important countries in the South Asian region in terms of trade and investment.
“As Bangladesh is maintaining steady economic growth for the last few decades, it should increase its export basket and volume. And the Turkish market is one of the potential places for Bangladeshi entrepreneurs,” he added.
To boost bilateral trade, Polat urged to sign a trade agreement. Moreover, he stressed enhancing liaison between the private sector of these two countries.
Dhaka Chamber President and leader of the delegation Rizwan Rahman said, “In FY2020-21 the bilateral trade between Bangladesh land Turkiye was USD 871.55 million which is in favour of Bangladesh. But the volume is not at the expected level.
“Turkiye is the 23rd largest export destination of Bangladesh and the 29th largest foreign investor amounting USD 30.51 million. Bangladesh and Turkiye can work and advocate together to form an effective D-8 economic bloc,” he added.
Rizwan urged Turkiye for transferring state-of-the-art industrial technology, capacity building of SMEs, research collaboration, strengthening the agro-value chain, and knowledge exchange. He invited Turkish investors to invest in Bangladesh as well as import more from Bangladesh.
Later. the business delegation members of Dhaka Chamber had interactive business-to-business match-making with more than 350 Turkish companies of different manufacturing and service sectors after the business forum.
Rizwan Rahman then had a separate meeting with the President of Istanbul Chamber of Commerce Şekib Avdagiç.
