'Steps on to boost bilateral trade with Bangladesh'

Agartala, Mar 18: With a view to giving a filip to bilateral trade with Bangladesh, the Centre has taken several of steps in the past few months, said Union Minister for Industries and Commerce Jairam Ramesh yesterday.

Talking to reporters in the first ever single country fair, orgqanised by the Bangladesh government here, he said the figure of India export to Bangladesh stood at 1.7 billion dollars in 2005-2006 while while India's import from Bangladesh stood at 1.50 million dollars during the period.

The trade fair would provide Bangladeshi entrepreneurs to showcase their products, he said adding the government was trying to remove the bottlenecks to encourage the traders of the neighbouring country.

India had offered eight million garments amounting Rs 60 million dollars to be imported duty free, Mr Ramesh informed and said the Centre had already offered a proposal amounting 150 million dollars to improve the rail connectivity in the neighbouring country.

Besides, the Bangladesh Road Organisation (BRO) had taken up a construction project for setting up a bridge at Raghnacherra, while the HBEL had been entrusted with commissioning a 240 MW power project in Bangladesh, he said.

Asked about the demand for direct bus service between Agartala -Kolkata via Dhaka, Mr Ramesh said this issue had already been discussed in the bilateral meeting.

Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said if the commercial relation between Bangladesh and India increased, both countries would be benefited.

The North eastern region would also be benefited, he said adding Bangladesh would get a lion's share of the profit if the country offered transit facility for the region.

UNI