Bangladesh Ready To Export Natural Gas

Bangladesh is willing to export excess natural gas to India, Gulam Rahman, commerce secretary, Bangladesh, said here yesterday at a meet organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

Rahman, however, said that Bangladesh had not yet estimated the exact reserves of gas. "Once the assessment of our gas reserves are made, it would be easy to find out as to how much is domestically required and how much Bangladesh can export to other nations, like India," Rahman said.

He said Bangladesh would soon be given the status of zero duty access to other countries on account of it being a least developed nation. India being a neighbour can take advantage of this by using Bangladesh as a base for export to other destinations. In this regard, Rahman referred to the ready-made garment sector which held considerable promise for export from Bangladesh at zero duty.

 

He also mentioned that Bangladesh had put forward a proposal to India to put up a customs office at the Benapole-Petropole border. This proposal has been made to address the difficulties on classification of goods and duty rates being faced by businessmen in both countries.

Rahman disclosed that a foreign company would be given the contract for building the Chittagong port.