Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Malaysian counterpart Najib Tun Abdul Razzak look on during the signing of a bilateral deal at the latter’s office in Putrajaya on Wednesday. PMO photo PUTRAJAYA: Bangladesh and Malaysia on Wednesday agreed to boost bilateral trade and commerce, especially to reduce the trade gap, with Kula Lumpur assuring Dhaka of starting negotiations on Free Trade Agreement (FTA), reports UNB. Malaysia also assured Bangladesh of extending support to it to become ASEAN’s dialogue partner and hosting the next Joint Commission meeting between the two countries in 2015. The last Bangladesh-Malaysia Joint Commission meeting was held in Dhaka in 2005. The bilateral meeting between Bangladesh and Malaysia was held at the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Office at Perdana Square in Putrajaya. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina led the Bangladesh side while Najib Abdul Razak the Malaysian side. Ministers and high government officials of both the countries attended the meeting. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque said the Malaysian Prime Minister in his opening remarks said there has been a very warm and good relationship between Bangladesh and Malaysia. “We want to take this relationship in to a greater height and there’ s no irritation in the relationship of our two countries,” Shahidul quoted the Malaysian PM as telling the meeting. Before the official bilateral meeting, both the leaders held a tete a tate, also at the Malaysian Prime Minister’s office. Shahidul said the meeting discussed various issues of mutual interests, especially three major ones like trade and commerce, migrant workers and investment. He said both the countries, especially the Malaysian Prime Minister, agreed to take active measures to reduce the current trade imbalance which is now disproportionately in favour of Malaysia. Following the request from Bangladesh long ago on signing of an FTA between the two countries through negotiations, he said the Malaysian Prime Minister has also agreed to initiate the negotiations, which is a big breakthrough for Bangladesh. Responding to Bangladesh’s request to widen the duty-free and quota-free access of Bangladeshi products to Malaysian market, especially pharmaceuticals goods, cement, jute and jute made goods, ceramics, footwear, both the Prime Ministers agreed to this end. The trade imbalance is currently in favour of Malaysia as the country imported only $136 million goods from Bangladesh against the export of around $ 2.1 billion. In this connection, Razak said the main reason for trade imbalance is the rising import of Palm oil from Malaysia. Under the protocol signed between the two countries on amending the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the employment of workers, the Foreign Secretary said initially some 12000 Bangladeshi workers would work at the Sarawak State of Malaysia after proper training and selection process from the database and if it goes successfully, the number would raise to 60,000. About the Bangladeshi migrant workers in Malaysia, Razak said there are some 2,99,000 legal Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia mainly in the services, plantation, and construction sectors and the number could be raised. About the illegal Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia, the Malaysian Prime Minister said that they are concerned about the matter and would look into the matter. For wooing investment, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina proposed forming a Bangladesh-Malaysia Investment Forum which is expected to be discussed in details during the next Joint Commission meeting to be held in Malaysia next year. About Sheikh Hasina’s initiative for becoming dialogue partner in Asean, Shahidul Haque said Hasina requested her Malaysian counterpart to positively support Bangladesh in becoming dialogue partner of Asean while Razak also agreed to respond positively to this end. Malaysia is the next chair of Asean. The Malaysian Prime Minister also assured his Bangladesh counterpart of continuing its support in technical and higher education. She also invited Razak to visit Bangladesh at his convenient time. Razak earlier visited Bangladesh in 2013. PMO Senior Secretary Md Abul Kalam Azad, Senior Secretary of the Home Ministry Mozammel Haque Khan and PM’s Press Secretary AKM Shamim Chowdhuri were present at the briefing. Meanwhile, Bangladesh and Malaysia on Wednesday signed four deals in the fields of manpower export, tourism, art, culture and heritage for further strengthening the ties between the two brotherly nations. The deals are an agreement on partial abolition of visa requirement, an MoU on cooperation in the field of tourism, one protocol amending the MoU of 2012 between Bangladesh and Malaysia on employment of workers and another MoU on cooperation in the field of culture, art and heritage. The signing ceremony was held at the Perdana Meeting Room of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) of Malaysia at Putrajaya after a restricted meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Malaysian counterpart, followed by the bilateral meeting between Bangladesh and Malaysia. Both the Bangladesh and Malaysian Prime Ministers witnessed the signing ceremony. Minister of Human Resources of Malaysia Dato Sri Richard Riot Anak Jaem and State Minister for Home Affairs of Bangladesh Asaduzzaman Khan signed the agreement on behalf of their respective countries on the partial abolition of visa requirement for the officials and diplomatic passport holders of both the countries. Dato Sri Richard Riot Anak Jaem and Bangladesh’s Expatriates Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Engineer Khandker Mosharraf Hossain inked the protocol amending the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the governments of Malaysia and Bangladesh on employment of workers. The MoU on cooperation in the field of tourism was signed by Malaysian acting Minster for Tourism and Culture Dato Sri Mustapa Mohamed and Bangladesh Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon. The MoU on cooperation in the field of cultural, arts and heritage was signed also by Dato Sri Mustapa Mohamed and Bangladesh Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor.
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