Turkey Bangladesh to sign free trade deal

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Turkish President Abdullah Gül shakes hands with Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina. Hürriyet photo

Bangladesh and Turkey agreed on April 13 to sign a free trade agreement.

At the Turkey-Bangladesh Working Breakfast on April 13, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Turkish President Gül agreed to increase trade between Turkey and Bangladesh. Hasina said she and Erdoğan had agreed during Erdoğan’s previous visit to Bangladesh to increase the current $1 billion trade figure between the two countries to $3 billion in a few years.

Hasina said that once the free trade agreement was signed, businessmen from Bangladesh would be able to invest in Turkey. She also stressed that Turkey’s pharmaceutical sector was very diverse and that Bangladesh itself produced more pharmaceuticals than it needed and currently exported to Europe and North America. Hasina said that if the free trade agreement was signed, Turkey would be in a position to benefit from the low prices in Bangladesh’s pharmaceutical industry. She also invited Turkish businessmen to invest in Bangladesh, saying that the country had many encouraging investment incentives and had invested in expanding its railways and highways.