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SANGSAD BHABAN, Sept 3, 2026(BSS) – Commerce Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir today said the government is giving emphasis on increasing the overall export capacity of the country rather than country-based initiative aiming at curbing country’s huge trade gap with India and China.

The minister said this responding to a supplementary query made by opposition Jamaat-e Islami lawmaker M Abdul Baten of Dhaka-16 at the question-answer session at the Jatiya Sangsad here.

Replying to a query on whether taking any particular steps to reduce trade gap with India, the commerce minister said Bangladesh has a big country-based trade gap with India and China in bilateral trade. 

“But it is necessary to focus on raising inclusive export capacity of the country not only addressing it a nation-based issue”, he said.

He said: “We need to raise our overall exportability.”

To enhance the exportability of the country, Muktadir said the government has already identified some sectors including leather, jute, ship building, light engineering and semi-conductor which have huge export potentials in future.

Initiative has been taken to enhance more export capability through  favorable policy and attracting new investment, he said, adding that at the same time, initiatives are underway to develop sectors that have yet to realize their full potential.
  
Regarding the trade gap with India, the minister said the trade gap in 2025-26 fiscal also has more widen compare to the previous year.

The bilateral trade between Bangladesh and India now stands nearly US$12.7 billion.
Of the trade volume, Bangladesh exports the goods worth of nearly US$1.89 billion to India while goods worth the rest amount is being imported by Bangladesh from India.

India has export potential in several other sectors as well. But there is some restriction in the bilateral trade from the Indian side.

Moreover, some barriers have also been surfaced in the bilateral trade with India in the last two years similarly from the Bangladesh side.

Referring to a recent visit by an Indian trade representative group in Bangladesh, the commerce minister said the Indian trade representative group has proposed to form a taskforce for the infrastructure development jointly with the Bangladeshi traders. Bangladesh is also agreed with this proposal.

“We are trying in various way as our export with India can be enhanced more in future”, he told the parliament.

About trade deficit, Muktadir said although the trade deficit with India higher but the private sector traders import goods from India considering their business benefit.