Turkey to partner BD in turning rich nation

Interview

Turkey Ambassador Mustafa Osman Turan tells The Bangladesh News

Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and the best for sustainable development model in the South Asian region. Its GDP has doubled in last 10 years, which is quite impressive. Turkey will be one of the strong partners to support Bangladesh in its journey to become a developed country in the next two decades.  

Since long, Bangladesh and Turkey maintain very strong foundation of bilateral relations and there is a very strong cultural and religious as well as historical tie between the two countries.

Mustafa Osman Turan, Ambassador of Turkey to Bangladesh, said this in an exclusive interview with The Bangladesh News.

Mentioning, expansion of trade and investment with Bangladesh is the top priority of Turkey, the envoy said, "The current level of trade volume does not reflect the potential that both the countries have. The trade volume is currently around $1 billion annually which is slightly in favour of Bangladesh. Even during Covid, it has stayed where it was a year before. So, that's a good sign that it does not go down. But in the coming years, we would like to double or triple this amount to $2 billion or even up to $3 billion in the next couple of years. For that we need to diversify our trade. We need to create the conditions for our business people to come together and find out what they can buy and sell to each other.

The Embassy of Turkey organised an investment webinar recently with all the heads of investment institutions in Bangladesh like the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA), hi-tech authority, The Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) and also other authorities.

"Salman F. Rahman, honorable advisor to the prime minister was present and briefed Turkish business people the opportunities that exist in Bangladesh. Now our Foreign Economic Relation Board through Turkey-Bangladesh Business Council (TBBC) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI). So, after signing the deal, we will create a business-to-business cooperation and hold meetings for exploring the potentials in trade and investments," he added.

Bangladesh is very good at pharmaceuticals and is exporting medicine to more than 140 countries in the world. So, I think there is a possibility of collaboration. We can also look into buying more medicines from Bangladesh. This can be another opportunity and joint ventures between the pharmaceutical industries of the two countries could be an interesting avenue.

With successful vaccination drive, Bangladesh's economic activity would return to normal and the country would continue to be the rising star in South Asia. If the trend goes like this, there is a high probability that Sonar Bangla dream of Father of the Nation and the vision of honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to make Bangladesh a developed country by 2041 will be realised without much difficulty. For that, Bangladesh, like any other countries, needs partners to support this endeavor.

[The full interview is on Business]