Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi today (Sep 17) said that the government fixed a target of attaining manufacturing goods exports worth $80 billion by 2024 and $100.0 billion by 2026.

The Minister was speaking at the "Meet the Overseas Correspondents Association of Bangladesh (OCAB)" at Jatiya Press Club in the city.

Tipu also said that there was a potential to increase Bangladesh's exports to the Indian market to $4 billion in the next three to four years.

Regarding the recent India visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the commerce minister said that they had discussed connectivity while the Indian side expressed their keenness to work with Bangladesh.

Tipu Munshi said that the issue of free transit was discussed and India agreed to allow Bangladesh to do business with Nepal and Bhutan through using its territory.

He said that the prime ministers of Bangladesh and India discussed over the antidumping duty imposed by New Delhi on Bangladesh's jute products in 2017 and hopefully the issue will be solved.

The Commerce minister noted that the agriculture ministry was entitled to set the prices of agricultural products.

"I eagerly wanted to set the reasonable prices of commodities but recently I have received some official documents and found that the agriculture ministry is entitled to set the prices of agricultural products," he added.

Regarding the fresh price hike of eggs in the market, he said that he was willing to import eggs from India if the import prices of the item are lower than the local prices.

"I will talk with the agriculture ministry. If the agriculture ministry is positive, we want to import eggs," the commerce minister said.

BDST: 2036 HRS, SEP 17, 2022
MN