Bangladesh okays deals to boost trade with India

Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Feb 5 (PTI) The newly formed Bangladeshi government under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Thursday approved a proposed bilateral investment development and protection agreement and decided to renew a 1980 trade agreement with India, apparently paving ways for signing a transit deal with the neighbour.

A cabinet meeting with Hasina in the chair approved the
deals, which officials said could be signed during the visit
of India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee next
week.

The scheduled two-day visit of Mukherjee could be reduced
to a one-day tour in view of his extra responsibilities
because of the ailment of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, diplomatic and foreign ministry sources said here.

"The government is ready to sign more such agreements in
the interests of the country and people's welfare," Hasina
briefly told reporters after the meeting.

The joint trade and investment agreement would allow
businessmen from the two countries to invest in businesses on
both sides of the border.

The 1980 treaty is a bilateral trade agreement, which is
being renewed after three years. The Bangladesh Nationalist
Party (BNP) government of late President Ziaur Rahman signed
it 28 years ago with New Delhi.

Under the treaty, the two governments had agreed to make
mutually beneficial arrangement for the use of their
waterways, roadways and railways for commerce between the two
countries.

"In 1980, this deal was signed by President Ziaur Rahman
and later on March 21, 2006 it was renewed by the then finance
minister Saifur Rahman (of BNP) for three years," Hasina's
press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad told reporters.

The deal has 13 clauses while the clause 8 specifies the
use of waterways, railways and roads.

"The two governments agreed to make mutually beneficial
agreements for the use of their waterways, roadways, railways
for commerce between the two countries for passage of goods
between places in one country through the territory of the
other's," the clause read.

The development came as BNP and several other rightwing
groups demanded that the government should hold an open debate
on the idea of signing an agreement with India allowing it
land transit.

"We want to get down to the nitty-gritty of transit and
share ideas with the people ... BNP would not accept approval
of a transit 'deal' by the 'rubber stamp' parliament," BNP
secretary general Khondker Delwar Hossain said recently.

New Delhi has long been pursuing the transit issue which
resurfaced in recent weeks as Mukherjee is set to visit Dhaka.
Indian envoy Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty said the transit issue
was likely to be a major agenda during the next week's visit.

Commerce Minister Jairam Ramesh during a recent visit
here had raised the "transit or transshipment" proposal,
preferring to call it "connectivity", saying Bangladesh could
earn USD 1.2 billion by allowing only two corridors,
Kolkata-Guwahati and Kolkata-Agartala. PTI AR
SAK