US to assign commercial attaché in Dhaka as trade spikes
Bangladesh exported goods worth $10.41 billion to the US last year, including $9.01 billion garments, and imported products worth more than $3 billion. Photo: Rajib Raihan
The US will have a commercial attaché posted in its embassy in Dhaka by this year as trade between Bangladesh and the US is fast rising, said Peter D Haas, US ambassador to Bangladesh, yesterday.
Last fiscal year, Bangladesh exported goods worth $10.41 billion to the US, which includes garments worth $9.01 billion, while importing goods amounting to more than $3 billion.
Haas suggested improving labour standards to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) from the US.
With rising bilateral business ties, many US companies are expressing interest at investing in Bangladesh, he said.
He suggested diversifying exports from Bangladesh as pharmaceuticals and goods related to information technology have a lot of potential apart from garments.
The Russia-Ukraine war will unfortunately have long-term negative impacts on global trade, he added.
He also suggested creating an enabling business climate so that the US and other international companies come here with the FDI.
Haas was speaking at a discussion on "US-Bangladesh Bilateral Relations: Business and Trade as Keys to Expansion" organised by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Bangladesh.
Businesspeople of both countries, civil society members, diplomats and exporters attended the meeting at The Westin Dhaka.
Syed Ershad Ahmed, president of AmCham, said as of today, Bangladesh ranked 100 out of 102 countries in a logistics quality and compliance index.
"If we can improve ports management and customs clearance efficiency, bilateral trade between BD and US definitely would further increase by about 20 per cent," he said.
"Majority of our infrastructures are underutilised with poor maintenance that immediately require increase in capacity building with competent and skilled human resources," he said.
Ahmed said the 100 "special economic zones" and several hi-tech parks which were being constructed would comprise more than 600,000 freelancing IT professionals and help attract FDI in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is the right destination for IT investments for the US and other countries, he said.
"In order to achieve the vision of Bangladesh becoming a 'developed nation' by 2041 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we have to attract more global partners and thereby diversify the country's existing portfolio," he said.
