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.