‘India Bangladesh Buyers Sellers Meet’ concludes

HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Oct 20: Indian Chamber of Commerce in association with department of Commerce, ministry of Industry and Commerce, government of India organised ‘India Bangladesh Buyers Sellers Meet’ on October 19 and 20. More than 35 Bangladeshi buyers and 150 Indian sellers participated in the BSM.
A Selvakumar, director, IWAI, ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, GoI while thanking the organisations for commencing the meet talked about the various activities carried out by IWAI, for feasible trade activities between the counties. He emphasised on the Act East Policy and the projects center sponsor for states like Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura. He stressed on the alternative road to Pandu Port, Guwahati which is expected to be complete by February 2025 and the establishment of skilled development center in Guwahati; construction, supply, installation of 2 floating jetties at Bogibeel & Guijan and tourist jetties under project of ministry of Tourism, GoI; construction of cargo terminal at Bogibeel; fairway development at river Dhansiri and Kapilli.
“12 operational land ports and 6 ports are supposed to be in work soon between India and Bangladesh,” said Md. Kabir Khan, co-ordinator, India Bangladesh ICP/LCs Infrastructure Development. He thanked ICC and IBCCI for the smooth regulation of the trade friendship between India and Bangladesh. He also praised India for maintaining the strong friendly ties with Bangladesh, via the sub administrative groups of both the countries.
S.M. Abul Kalam Azad, secretary general, IBCCI placed a proposition to organise an exhibition in Assam and Bangladesh for cultural and trade exchange between imports and exporters of the counterparts.
Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, vice president, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association spoke on the vitality of the SMEs for bilateral business, business treaties and protocols. He said that SMEs must be set as a priority in import and export of small trade products, which becomes expensive, as opposed to the bulk product export and import, which can be cut down if purchased from Bangladesh. He suggested creating a way of mid venture between Assam and Bangladesh.
Emphasising on the cross border trade potential through ICPs, internal factors-external factors, Arvind Basavaraj Akashi, manager, Land Ports Authority of India, MoHA, GoI suggested an action plan to ICC for conducting trade facilitation workshops at the district levels for trade awareness of the border areas, to establish import export hub at district levels, to conduct periodical workshops, seminars for importers and exporters of both countries at the ICPs.
Feurdouzi Begum, director of FBCCI proposed to host the ‘Women Entrepreneurship Exhibition’ between India and Bangladesh and invited the Indian counterparts to the Bangladesh Expo 2023.