DHAKA, Sept 20, 2021 (BSS) - Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi today sought 
sincere support from Russia for ensuring direct export of Bangladeshi 
products including RMG to their market.

   Tipu said there is a huge demand for Bangladeshi products including RMG in 
Russian market, but the RMG exports are being done there through another 
country due to various complexities. 

   He said the existing complexities have already been identified while 
efforts are on to addressing those.

   The Commerce Minister said this when newly appointed Russian Ambassador to 
Dhaka Alexander V. Mantytskiy met him at his Secretariat office.

   Tipu also hoped that once these issues are addressed properly, then export 
of Bangladeshi products would increase manifold to Russian market for which 
there is a need for sincere support from the Russian side.

   Mentioning that Russia is a friendly nation of Bangladesh, he said 
Bangladesh always expresses its gratitude to Russia since the country played 
a very important role during the War of Liberation of Bangladesh.

   The Commerce Minister cited that the trade volume with Russia could not be 
increased to a big extent due to some complexities in transaction in the 
banking channel and also due to some complexities related to duty.

   He also hoped that with the help of Russia, Bangladesh would be able to 
boost its export to Eurasian Economic Union and CIS countries. 

   In response, the Russian Ambassador said that Russia attaches special 
importance to its relationship with Bangladesh while the country is 
interested to boost its trade and investment relationship with Bangladesh.

   Since there is a huge demand for Bangladeshi products in Russian market, 
Mantytskiy hoped that the bilateral trade and investment would increase in 
the coming days if the existing trade barriers are removed.

   He said that the Russian government is very much interested to resolve the 
existing barriers and thus wants to be a development partner of Bangladesh.

   According to official data, Bangladesh exported goods worth $665.31 
million to Russia against the imports of $466.70 million in the last fiscal 
year (FY21).

   Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh, Additional Secretary (export) M 
Hafizur Rahman, Additional Secretary (FTA) Nur Md Mahbubul Haque were 
present, among others, on the occasion.