Awwal 19, 1432 / April 23, 2011, SPA -- Indian private entrepreneurs have planned a 3.5- billion-dollar investment to tap market potential in Bangladesh, dpa quoted a senior Indian minister visiting Bangladesh as saying Saturday. "The investment, already in the pipeline, will help increase job creation and value addition," said Anand Sharma, Indian Commerce and Industry Minister, told reporters after official talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Muhammad Faruk Khan. Telecommunications, pharmaceutical and household appliances are the major sectors where Indian firms are planning investment as they believe Bangladesh is a growing market for India. Indian telecom Airtel, which launched a Bangladeshi operation last year, has already invested 300 million dollars, and plans to invest 500 million dollars more. The Indian commerce and industry minister is on a two-day visit to Dhaka apparently to do preparatory work to obtain transit facilities for transportation of goods through Bangladeshi territory to its land-locked north-eastern states. A deal to this end is likely to be signed during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Bangladesh planned sometime later this year as Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed had agreed transit facilities to India during her New Delhi visit in January 2010. At the meeting the Indian minister agreed in principal to pay fees for carrying its goods through Bangladesh burying domestic debates that India would be allowed the facilities free of cost. "We are ready to pay transit charges in line with internationally- established norms," said Sharma who is leading a 33-member delegation, 22 of whom are businessmen. But the Bangladeshi minister refrained from making any comment on transit issue, saying that the matter was still being vetted by a high-powered committee. India also agreed to increase the quota-free export limit of Bangladeshi garments to 10 million pieces per year, said the Bangladeshi commerce minister. Bangladesh is now enjoying duty-free access of 8 million pieces of garment products under a bilateral trade arrangement with India. The two next-door neighbours have a huge trade gap as available statistics show Bangladesh had imported from India in 2009-10 worth 3.2 billion dollars against its exports of only 304.63 million dollars.
