Kathmandu, December 7:

A four-day long Bangladesh Single Country Fair-2007 kicked off here at the Birendra International Convention Centre (BICC) in Kathmandu today with a view of exploring and boosting Nepal-Bangladesh trade and economic ties.

Speaker Subash Chandra Nemwang inaugurated the fair which will last till December 10 and has 37 Bangladeshi firms and companies with their products and services.

Speaking after the inauguration, Nemwang underscored the need of exploiting existing potentials and exploring new avenues for enhancing bilateral trade and investment opportunities. “If there are any hurdles, both countries need to address them through a mutual cooperation and interactions,” he said adding that both the governments should take the issues of weak infrastructure and transit facility seriously to expand trade and economic ties. “Issues related to non-tariff barriers and other procedural hurdles should be solved in mutual understanding,” he suggested.

“Despite Bangladesh being one of the closest neighbours, bilateral trade has not been able to pick up. We believe that improvement in transport connectivity and transit facility could increase the current trade volume,” said Shyam Sunder Gupta, minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies.

Mustafa Mohiuddin, joint secretary (export) at the ministry of Commerce, Bangladesh said that his government has taken the event as a marketing tool for promoting Bangladeshi products. He also invited Nepali entrepreneurs to invest or set up joint ventures with Bangladeshi counterparts in export processing zones (EPZ).

The fair will provide a common platform for private sector representatives from both the South Asian neighbours, said Imtiaz Ahmed, Bangladeshi envoy to Nepal. He also admitted that the bilateral trade between the two countries have not picked up due to weak infrastructure and transit facility. “Trade flow could improve once these problems are sorted out.”

Binod Kumar Chaudhary, president of Confederation of Nepalese Industries also stressed on the need of finding long-term solution for the transport and transit related issues. “The transport and transit issues need to be addressed bilaterally and then tri-laterally.”