State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam
today said Dhaka looks forward to the next 50 years of successful
collaboration with South Korea in line with existing “comprehensive
partnership”.
“I wish that both Bangladesh and Korea will collectively bring the best out of
the Comprehensive Partnership particularly in terms of the Diplomatic,
Economic and People-to-People Relations,” he said.
He was speaking as the chief guest at a seminar titled “Korea-Bangladesh
Economic Cooperation: Sharing Development Experience and Exploring
Opportunities” at a city hotel.
“As we are crossing the milestone of fifty years of friendship this year, we
look forward to the next 50 years of successful collaboration between our two
friendly countries for the mutual benefit of our two peoples,” said the state
minister.
Alam expressed gratitude for the Korean government’s Employment Permit System
(EPS) which has been providing employment opportunities for Bangladeshi
workers in Korea.
“We thank the ROK government for increasing the ceiling of the EPS quota for
Bangladesh to 10,000 for this year and employing Bangladeshi workers in the
shipbuilding sector,” he said.
The state minister hoped that the Korean government would favorably consider
increasing the intake of Bangladeshi workers and opening new opportunities for
our workers to work in Korean agriculture, fisheries, shipbuilding and other
service sectors.
He said Korea may support Bangladesh for improvement of technical skills and
productivity of Bangladeshi workers as well as Korean language training for
Bangladeshi EPS workers by the native Korean language instructors up to the
intermediate level prior to their departure for Korea.
Alam thanked Seoul for the increase of EDCF loans by Korea for Bangladesh to
$3 billion from $700 million for a period of five years (2023-2027).
“I also express my gratitude to the Korean government for considering the new
window for concessional loans- Economic Development Promotion Facility (EDPF)
for Bangladesh to fund large-scale infrastructure projects,” he said.
Noted that Korea became a significant trade partner of Bangladesh, he
expressed satisfaction over the growth of the bilateral trade volume in recent
years registering a record high of USD 3 billion in 2022.
State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak spoke as special guest at
the seminar.
South Korean Ambassador to Bangladesh Park Young-sik, South Korean experts
Prof Hyeok Jeong, Dr Dongsoo Kim and Dr Jaehan Cho also spoke at separate
sessions.
Korean envoy said that he is confident that Bangladesh will be able to
overcome the issues following its LDC graduation and achieve the goals of
Smart Bangladesh as a developed country by 2041.
“Bangladesh has the potential to achieve sustainable economic development. We
have already witnessed a tripling of Bangladesh’s per capita income over the
last decade,” he said.
He said South Korea and Bangladesh is currently discussing the negations of
bilateral Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
“The EPA, if reached, will greatly increase bilateral trade in the mutually
beneficial ways,” he added.
Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha