Bangladesh and Cambodia to sign new MoUs for boosting trade

Dhaka Tribune | 2 October 2017

'The amount of bilateral trade is not really increasing at the moment, but we hope these new agreements will remedy this'

Bangladesh is set to sign two new memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with Cambodia, with the aim of boosting trade between the two countries.

The MoUs will concern details of the joint trade council as well as the renewal of a bilateral trade agreement which expired last year, said the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce as quoted by the Khmer Times.

Cambodian Commerce Minister Pan Sorasak announced at a meeting with Bangladesh Ambassador to Cambodia and Thailand Saida Muna Tasneem last week that the MoUs would be signed during Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s upcoming visit to Cambodia in October.

The Bangladesh ambassador had at the meeting asked the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce to hold a forum for business dialogues with the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), to foster a better trade partnership between the two countries.

According to the Khmer Times, Cambodian Commerce Ministry spokesperson Soeng Sophary said: “The amount of bilateral trade is not really increasing at the moment, but we hope these new agreements will remedy this. We call that a win-win approach. Bangladesh and Cambodia share LDC [less developed country] status. We need each other, despite being competitors in the garment sector.”

“We can greatly benefit from a closer relationship with Bangladesh – an example of this is the deal we reached recently on rice,” she added.

Last month, the government signed two deals with Vietnam and Cambodia to import 2.5 million tons of rice from each of the countries.