Business Report:
Canada wants to facilitate Bangladesh to be more competitive globally in terms of enhancing supply chain ecosystem, Canadian Senior Assistant Deputy Minister for International Trade and Chief Trade Commissioner Sara Wilshaw said on Sunday.
“The Canadian automotive sector is now looking for new market diversification, in that case Bangladesh could be a great market,” she was addressing while meeting between Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) and Canadian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Ajit Singh at DCCI Gulshan Center in Dhaka.
Canadian High Commissioner Ajit Singh said that to strengthen the contact between the businesses, chamber to chamber relation is more important.
He said the private sector of Bangladesh is engine of growth of this country, and Canada is very much interested to boost its trade with Bangladesh.
“We would like to work in the skills training, technical assistance, vocational training, nursing, agro-tech industry, ease of doing business development side in Bangladesh” he said. He added that there are huge opportunities to strengthen the bilateral trade relation to a new height in the days to come.
Sara Wilshaw said companies in Canada are mostly of SMEs.
Almost 75 percent of Canadian exports and most of the FDI from Canada go to the USA. On the other hand, Canada receives most of the FDI from the USA. But at the same time, it is also important to diversify exports, export market, products to compete in the international market.
Canada is good at educational sector and a lot of students from Bangladesh study in Canada, Sara said.
She added that in the education and skill development sector both countries have equal opportunities to work together. Canada has a commendable strength in automotive industry as well as in the food processing industry.
DCCI acting president Razeev H Chowdhury said that the bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Canada reached $2.22 billion in FY2024 while the export from Bangladesh to Canada was $1.32 billion and import from Canada to Bangladesh was $901.09 million.
