DHAKA: Bangladesh and Vietnam aim to raise their two-way annual trade to $2 billion over the next three years from nearly $1bn, a business association official said on Monday.

We had a meeting with the visiting president of Vietnam today and focused on trade and investment, Mohammad Shafiul Islam, president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries, told Reuters.

Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang arrived in Bangladesh for a state visit on Sunday.

At present, the volume of annual trade between two countries is worth $900 million. Islam said the aim was to more than double that in coming years.

Bangladesh mainly imports agriculture products, such as rice and livestock products from Vietnam while it imports textiles and cloths, leather and leather products, plastic products and medicine from Bangladesh.

Earlier, the Vietnamese leader met Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Bangladesh sought Vietnam’s cooperation in finding a peaceful settlement of the crisis over nearly 700,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees arriving from neighbouring Myanmar.

Hasina told reporters after the meeting that the Vietnamese leader has assured Bangladesh that his country would support Bangladesh.

Both Vietnam and Myanmar are members of the Association of South East Asian Nations.

Bangladesh and Vietnam also signed three memorandum of understanding to promote cooperation in fisheries and livestock, industry and cultural exchanges.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2018