Bangladesh and Malaysia signed an agreement Tuesday to expand cooperation in trade, agriculture, information technology, education and tourism, the two countries' foreign ministers said. "We have agreed to work together to have a win-win situation," Bangladesh's Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan told a news briefing in Dhaka after meeting with his Malaysian counterpart, Syed Hamid Albar. Khan also said Kuala Lumpur had agreed to consider Dhaka's plea to reduce the huge trade imbalance between the two countries. Bangladesh's trade deficit with Malaysia stood at US$245 million (¤200.37 million) in the 2004 fiscal year. Syed Hamid, meanwhile, said he would encourage his country's private sector to invest in Bangladesh's energy and power sector.
