UK remains steadfast partner of B’desh Sarah Cooke

UNB :

British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Sarah Cooke has said the United Kingdom (UK) will remain a steadfast partner of Bangladesh, noting that the two countries continue to expand their bilateral trade through the UK’s Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS).

A group of diverse and inspirational Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs representing eight businesses is set to lead a trade mission to the United Kingdom with support from the UK Government SheTrades Programme.

“This trade mission will further solidify our trade and investment relationship,” said British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Sarah Cooke who hosted a send-off reception at her residence on February 3 to congratulate the entrepreneurs ahead of their departure to the UK.

She said the UK government is incredibly proud to support this remarkable group of Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs to develop new markets in the UK.

“Their inventiveness, tenacity and spirit of entrepreneurship serve as evidence of the enormous potential of Bangladeshi women-led enterprises,” said the High Commissioner.

The International Trade Centre is implementing this initiative to bring 50 women-led businesses from four Asian countries (Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Mongolia) and six African countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Mozambique) to Manchester on February 11 to hold business-to-business (B2B) meetings with UK companies.

Their visit will involve high-level discussions with investors, legislators and corporate executives in the UK and promote cross-border trade between the two countries including under the UK’s Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS).

The DCTS is the UK’s generous preferential trading scheme which provides duty-free, quota-free trade to Bangladesh on everything but arms.

The DCTS gives Bangladesh the opportunity to potentially save £317m in tariffs annually on the country’s exports to the UK, the highest among all countries eligible for DCTS.

Women-led companies in the fresh and processed food, textiles and clothing, handicrafts, beauty, information technology and business process outsourcing sectors will have one-on-one meetings with British buyers who want to diversify their supply chains and increase the competitiveness of their products.

The businesses chosen from Bangladesh are TMSS ICT and Handicrafts, SuperTel, Opus Technology, Tarango Bangladesh, Parijat Bangladesh, TANIS Bangladesh and Leatherina.

Five of these companies already possess the certification needed to enter the UK market and the remaining three are currently being supported by the British Standard Institute (BSI) with necessary accreditation.

This Mission is hosted in partnership with the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and financed by UK International Development as part of the SheTrades Commonwealth+ Programme, said the British High Commission in Dhaka.

The London Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce and the West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce are also supporting the event.