Overall trade volume between Bangladesh and China is expected to reach $5 billion in three years, with a major leap in Bangladesh's exports, Chinese and Bangladeshi officials said on Thursday. Two-way trade between the countries totalled $2.2 billion in 2006, including Bangladeshi exports of between $300 and $350 million, a senior official said.
"We will be able to raise our export volume almost three times over the next three years by using a number of facilities given by China," Mohammad Shahab Ullah, vice-chairman of the state-run Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), told Reuters. Bangladesh plans to boost its exports to China to $1.0 billion by 2010, when the overall trade would reach $5.0 billion, he told Reuters.
The EPB official said the estimates came from a meeting earlier this week between Bangladesh's commerce adviser Mirza Azizul Islam and China's junior commerce minister Wang Chao, in Dhaka. Wang, a vice commerce minister of China, signed a deal during his visit for setting up a trade centre for which they would provide more than $26 million as a grant to Bangladesh, and also to import more Bangladeshi products. China will also give Bangladesh $2.5 million interest-free loan for development of technical expertise of the entrepreneurs, the EPB official said.