Market products in Lanka aggressively

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Bangladesh will have to aggressively market its products in Sri Lanka and improve connectivity at the earliest to increase the paltry annual trade of $39 million, said Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama.

“The local pharmaceutical industry can have a major input in this regard and cement can also have a strong influence. Food items and commodities also can significantly develop and enhance our trade ties,” the Lankan foreign minister said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Star on Tuesday.

“Both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka need to have a good marketing strategy as we follow free-market economy model,” Bogollagama felt.

According to the Lankan minister, Bangladesh government is undergoing a ‘homegrown’ experiment as a solution to address fundamental issues for the greater good of the country and its people.

It is a process that countries must go through phases to reform and correct fundamental issues to strengthen democracy and rule of law, Bogollagama said adding, “Bangladesh is on the way to addressing its issues.”

Asked to comment on Dhaka-Colombo relation, the Lankan minister said, “There is a lot of scope for further growth in our relationship.”

“By developing our trade relation, we can also enhance people-to-people connectivity, air connectivity and expand our sea routes,” he said.

The Lankan minister also said the two countries need cheaper freight carrier costs between Colombo and Chittagong.

“We need cheaper freight carrier costs between Colombo and Chittagong. We encourage Dhaka to look at taking a direct southern route to Sri Lanka rather than a east-bound route.”

He also said both Dhaka and Colombo are keen to resume direct flights, which were suspended in 2002. Meetings could be held next month in this regard, Bogollagama hoped.

The visiting Lankan minister stressed more on revisiting and renewing the 1979 Shipping Services Agreement.

He said Chittagong was a major source for Sri Lanka’s urea fertiliser demand and it should be rejuvenated.

Bogollagama said Colombo is a ‘good hub’, which Bangladesh can exploit for stronger shipping and trading links.

He viewed that a deep seaport in Chittagong would attract the top-range shipping lines to Bangladesh that could work as a feeder to a hub in Sri Lanka.

Regarding the Saarc, the Lankan minister said it is now a mature and progressive-looking organisation that has started to break away from the past impediments, especially Indo-Pak tensions, as, he believes, the two South Asian giants have softened their stances regarding each other.

“Saarc leaders have come to realise to look at matters from a wider perspective, rather than from the perspective of bilateral relationships,” Bogollagama felt.

He said the recent addition of Afghanistan to the now eight-member regional grouping and five powerful states joining as observers testify the Saarc’s growing reputation and sign of maturity.

The Lankan minister opined that although Saarc countries are members of the developing world, nothing stops them from dreaming and working more progressively towards the future.

“We have similar cultures, similar trade and similar behavioural patterns, which make it much more easier for us to work together than a lot of the other regions on earth,” he added.

When asked whether any progress has been made in Saarc given that Safta is mired for an Indo-Pak disagreement over product list, Bogollagama said creation and progress in the Saarc Development Fund shows that the member states can cooperate and work together.

Asked how Indian preponderance affects Saarc and its smaller member states, the Lankan minister said countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh could work together to increase India’s intra-Saarc trade.

“We have to engage India more and more within the region. India can play a significant role in the region through its service sector,” he said.

Taking the tourism industry as an example, he said if Indian tourists start visiting other Saarc countries it would open up a massive potentiality for the hospitality sector.

“India is also developing nuclear power and we have an energy crisis in the Saarc region,” Bogollagama said adding other South Asian countries can use India’s advancement for their own benefit.

He said transfer of India’s technology to the region’s less developed countries could be highly significant in their development.

Quizzed on the effect of internal political and security problems on the multilateral organisation, he said internal matters should be Saarc’s focus but the member states have realised the need for cooperation if required.

But Bogollagama underlined the need for greater regional cooperation in eliminating terrorism, as he said it is imperative for the states to cooperate to cut off the terrorists’ lifeline.

He identified money laundering, drug and human trafficking and gun-running that need to be reined in to ‘eliminate terrorism’ from the region.

The Lankan foreign minister also said that the Sri Lankan government is committed to eliminate terrorists from the country.

Bogollagama leaves Dhaka today with the Sri Lankan delegation that had come to receive the relic of Gautama Buddha’s hair from the Chittagong Buddhist Temple.

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