DHAKA, 23 March 2004 — Bangladesh and Vietnam signed three accords and agreed to increase trade, agriculture and cultural ties yesterday during the first-ever trip to this South Asian nation by a Vietnamese president.
Following talks between Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong, officials from both countries signed an accord against taxing individuals or companies operating in both countries twice, Bangladesh’s foreign minister told reporters.
Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan said the agreement would boost bilateral trade and investment.
Trade between Dhaka and Hanoi was worth about $18 million last year, Vietnamese Embassy officials said.
Bangladesh imports construction materials, electronics, machinery and agricultural products from Vietnam. It exports frozen foods, pharmaceuticals, chemical fertilizers, leather and jute goods to the Southeast Asian nation.
The two sides also signed pacts on increasing cooperation in agriculture and cultural exchanges.
Luong arrived yesterday in the Bangladeshi capital on a three-day visit to seek more economic cooperation. Nine government ministers and about 40 businessmen accompanied him.
Luong will address business leaders today. He will visit an export-based industrial zone and a pharmaceutical factory near the capital, Dhaka. He is scheduled to depart for Pakistan tomorrow.
Ruling Party Lawmakers Pressurize Khaleda to Trim Cabinet
Lawmakers of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party have demanded that Prime Minister Khaleda Zia downsize the Cabinet, and take steps to arrest price spiral of essential commodities and improve law and order.
“The MPs discussed various issues that include trimming of the Cabinet, containing of law and order dewnslide and controlling price spiral of essentials,” chief whip in Parliament Khandaker Delwar Hossain told reporters after a meeting of the BNP parliamentary party. He did not elaborate.
Delwar claimed that the prime minister “did not make any comment” in response to the suggestion for the downsizing of the Cabinet.
Seventeen lawmakers spoke at the meeting, attended by 188 out of 195 BNP members of Parliament, sources said in Dhaka yesterday.
High Court Stays Shifting of Stranded Pakistanis
The high court has directed the government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia not to evict the stranded Pakistanis from the Geneva refugee camp situated within the compound of the recently shut Adamjee Jute Mills near eastern Narayanganj district town.
A high court bench of Justice M.A. Matin and Justice Syed Refat Ahmed also issued a rule nisi on the government to show cause as to why it should not be directed to rehabilitate those people at an open space near the Adamjee Jute Mills instead of the proposed plan to rehabilitate them in Syedpur.
