Mr. Sheikh Bashiruddin, Advisor to the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Textiles and Jute of the Government of Bangladesh, met with YB Datuk Seri Johari bin Abdul Ghani, Minister of Plantation and Commodities of Malaysia, on the second day of his 2-day brief visit to Malaysia on 26 November. The Malaysian Minister welcomed the Advisor and congratulated him on his new responsibility.
During the meeting, the Advisor highlighted various aspects of Bangladesh-Malaysia bilateral relations and informed the Malaysian Minister about the demand, production and supply system of essential commodities in Bangladesh. It is worth noting that Malaysia is the world’s second largest palm oil producer and Bangladesh is one of the major South Asian importing countries in terms of importing Malaysian crude palm oil. The Commerce Advisor of highlighted the Government’s plan to provide various essential commodities including edible oil at fair prices to 10 million families under the Social Safety Net program through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB). In line with that, he requested the Malaysian Minister to take necessary measures steps as early as possible to supply refined palm oil from Malaysia through TCB under the support of the Malaysian Government, ahead of the upcoming Holy Ramadan.
The Malaysian Minister took due note of the request of the Trade Advisor of Bangladesh for the supply of refined palm oil to Bangladesh on a Government-to-Commercial (B2G) basis under the patronage of his government and strongly assured of taking immediate effective measures after discussing this with local businessmen.
Among the topics discussed included, among others, collaboration in the rubber sector development, potential trade & investment opportunities and cooperation in establishing the Commodity Exchange proposed by the Chittagong Stock Exchange. Among others, Deputy High Commissioner Mohammad Khorshed Alam Khastgir, First Secretary (Commercial) Pranab Kumar Ghosh, First Secretary (Political) Rehana Parvin from the High Commission were present while Press Secretary to the Malaysian Minister of Agriculture and Commodities Yusrinuddin bin Abd Karim and other officials were also in attendance.
