Bangla Cabinet's nod to export-import policy likely in next meeting

Dhaka, Oct 16 (UNI) The Bangladesh Government is likely to approve three-year export and import policies in the next cabinet meeting, relaxing some rules for easy external trade, Bangladesh Commerce Ministry announced today.

''The draft import and export policy are now under the Law Ministry's consideration, and we can hope that these will get the Cabinet nod in its next meeting,'' Commerce Minister Hafizuddin Ahmed disclosed after a meeting on the draft export policy at his ministry here.

In the new export policy, the government is likely to allow the import of some machinery usually used for export-oriented industries, relaxing the restrictions, he informed.

The new policy order extends the amount of money for sending samples to different countries from 5,000 dollar to 10,000 dollar.

''The pharmaceutical exporters and RMG-sector people will be benefitted a lot from this decision and it will help find out new markets across the world,'' the minister said about the merit of the relaxed sampling rule.

Mr Hafizuddin, also in charge of the Water Resources Ministry, said subsidies and cash incentives for different sectors remained the same in the new policy.

The main aims of the export policy, which covers the period from 2006 to 2009, are to earn more foreign exchange, eradicate unemployment from the country and involve women in the export-based activities.

The minister also mentioned that in the first two months of this fiscal year, country's exports witnessed a 38 per cent growth at 1.66 billion dollar over the export proceeds of 1.2 billion dollar during the same period last year.

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