Trade between Bangladesh and Switzerland tripled found in a decade

Bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Switzerland has tripled on a decade and the trend continues to grow as the two countries are exploring innovative means of trade and investments.

The bilateral trade stood at around $850 million up from the $300 million this year 2010, according to Swiss statistics.

"Most of the significant Swiss multinational companies, as well as a number of small and medium enterprises, can be found in Bangladesh," says a declaration of the Swiss Embassy in Dhaka following the two countries kept talks in promoting trade and expenditure today.

The second meeting between the Inter-agency Committee of Bangladesh and Switzerland was held in Dhaka on November 18, 2020.

The Inter-agency Committee was formed by the Bangladesh government in September 2018 to review and address challenges of Swiss businesses and investors in Bangladesh, and also to promote trade and investment between the two countries. The primary Inter-agency Committee meeting occurred in April 2019.

Bangladesh delegation was led by Commerce Secretary Jafar Uddin while Ambassador Erwin Bollinger, the Swiss Government Council's Delegate for Trade Agreements and Head of the Bilateral Monetary Relations Division at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, led the Swiss delegation and joined up with the meeting via videoconference from Bern, Switzerland.

The Ambassador of Switzerland to Bangladesh Nathalie Chuard also attended the meeting that was held at the Ministry of Commerce in Dhaka.

Both parties welcomed the positive developments of bilateral trade and expenditure, explored methods to further strengthen business relations, presented particular trade and investment promotion measures, reviewed specific company issues and discussed the entire business environment in Bangladesh.

Highlighting the leads of further monetary cooperation, Ambassador Bollinger explained: "Our bilateral financial relations are very good and mutually profitable, with a positive style observed in the last years".

Commerce Secretary Jafar Uddin expressed Bangladesh's wish to further intensify the promising trade and expenditure dynamics.

Despite various challenges linked to ease of doing business and also Covid-19, Swiss companies continue steadily to discover promising potential in the Bangladeshi markets. Economic relations between Switzerland and Bangladesh, consequently, are growing speedily, the officials said, in line with the statement.