By Kamran Reza Chowdhury
Dhaka, Dec 23 (bdnews24.com)—Bangladesh has sent a draft deal to Kathmandu, ahead of prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s India visit next month, to activate a 1976 transit treaty allowing Nepal to use Mongla port for export of goods to a third country.
Government officials say Bangladesh and Nepal are ready to sign the deal to activate the transit agreement, which will also allow goods-laden trucks and trains to enter each others’ territory.
Positive signs are also there that India will give landlocked Nepal the long-awaited approval on using a patch of territory as transit for transporting goods to Bangladesh, communications ministry officials told bdnews24.com on Monday.
The approval is likely to coincide with Hasina’s visit now slated for the second week of January, they added.
THREE-WAY COOPERATION
Bangladesh and Nepal must both have Indian approval, to cross its territory, before implementing the deal aiming to increase trade volume between them.
The relations between Dhaka and Delhi have been boosted recently as the two countries have moved closer through cooperation in a number of areas, including trade and cross-border crime.
Delhi in September this year assured Bangladesh of providing transit facilities to reach both Nepal and Bhutan through Indian territories.
In return, Dhaka agreed to allow India to carry equipment via Bangladesh to one of its Northeastern states to set up a power plant there.
“The issue of third-country trade between Bangladesh and Nepal, and Bangladesh-Bhutan will be discussed during the prime minister’s upcoming Delhi visit,” foreign secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes told bdnews24.com Saturday.
“We hope the deal with Nepal will be signed,” he said.
TRADE BOOST EYED
The volume of Bangladesh-Nepal bilateral trade is negligible and the balance is highly in favour of Nepal. Bangladesh’s exports to Nepal were worth only US$ 8.1 million against imports amounting to $69 million in fiscal 2008-09.
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(Submitted by Pritam Rohila)