A forthcoming meeting is anticipated to take place in Dhaka next month between the Commerce Secretaries of Bangladesh and India. The objective of the meeting is to assess the progress made towards finalising a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), aimed at boosting bilateral trade and investment.
The exact date for the meeting has yet to be confirmed, but Senior Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh stated recently that efforts were being made to schedule the Commerce Secretary-level meeting on the CEPA in August in Dhaka.
In September of this year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to visit India to engage in discussions with her Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, on various bilateral issues, including the CEPA.
Tapan Kanti Ghosh underlined the last commerce secretary-level meeting on CEPA took place in New Delhi last year even as he noted both the countries have been exchanging trade data as a precursor to commencing formal negotiations on CEPA. However, the formal and final negotiation for signing the agreement will commence after the completion of negotiations at other levels, according to Ghosh.
