Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday assured complete cooperation to Bangladesh from India’s side in ensuring barrier-free trade between the two countries.
The minister while addressing India-Bangladesh Digital Conference on Agriculture Sector said that India has offered duty-free market access to Bangladesh in many products, including, agri-exports. He said, “Together, we can aspire for a better & brighter future for people of both the countries, particularly for the farmers of both countries to benefit from economic prosperity.”
Goyal spoke about the warm and cordial relationship that the two nations share, and addressed the partnership between the two nations as a role model in the region, for good neighbourly relations. “Our ties have witnessed an upswing in the last 6 years. We have scaled up trade & economic engagement, besides implementing a number of connectivity & infrastructure projects”, he mentioned.
He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh’s PM Sheikh Hasina share a common vision and pro-business policies which have enhanced governance in our two countries. They both share an ambition of improving the prosperity of the people, he mentioned.
Over 50% of the population in both the countries are involved in the agriculture sector, it has huge socio-economic dimension, Goyal said.
“We are delighted that Bangladesh has now become self-sufficient in food, and the goal is to modernise agriculture. This is an area where we both should work with greater synergies & collaboration. Agriculture can have game-changing potential between our two countries. Bilateral cooperation in this sector can pave the way to overcome the current economic challenges. The agriculture sector has huge socio-economic dimensions. Being the prominent sector of the economy, bilateral cooperation in this sector can pave the way to overcome the current economic challenges our countries are facing.”
~ Union Minister Piyush Goyal
The Minister appreciated the intention of the Government of Bangladesh to search for ways to increase & improve the prosperity of their farmers, and assure complete cooperation in this regard. Further, he talked about the steps taken by India to help our farmers, including transportation, irrigation, institutional credit, marketing facilities, supply of quality inputs like seeds, neem coating fertilisers and machinery and development of associated cottage industries.
“We have used a very holistic approach to enhance the productivity & efficiency of farmers & bring back attractiveness to the agriculture sector. Going forward, in the post-Pandemic world as India also expands its international engagement coupled with our efforts to make India more self-reliant, we believe we will be able to increase the incomes of our farmers & help them prosper,” Goyal said
The Minister said that in view of the recent developments, the non-tariff barriers will play a crucial role in determining how Bangladesh utilises the abundant opportunities India has to offer
Referring to other areas of bilateral cooperation, Goyal said that the largest number of tractors used in Bangladesh come from India.
“On food processing, we can work with each, learn from each other & expand our presence in the global market in partnership with each other. We share a very strong relationship in the Railways sector which is our bridge to greater engagement in infrastructure development. Government of both our countries have set very high benchmarks on how Bangladesh & India together can capture a larger share of the global market in textiles. Through this, we can provide jobs to the people, increase earnings from trade & support economic development,” the minister added
