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State Minister for Commerce Ahasanul Islam Titu on Monday said if Bangladesh can’t complete the process of graduating from the status of least developed country (LDC) in the next five years to 2029, it would be a failure of the country, not a failure of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“It's five years to 2029 from now; if we can’t utilise these years properly, it would be a failure from our side, not a failure of the WTO or anybody else,” he said while speaking at a dialogue.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in partnership with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Bangladesh, organised the dialogue titled “What did WTO-MC13 Deliver for the Graduating LDCs? Perspectives from Bangladesh” at CIRDAP auditorium in Dhaka city.
The minister said they are preparing for a number of Free Trade Agreements (FTA), Preferential Trade Agreements (PTA), Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPA) and other economic cooperation over the next five years.
Tapan Kanti Ghosh, Senior Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, spoke at the event as a special guest.
Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Distinguished Fellow, CPD, Former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the WTO and UN Offices in Geneva, made comments as the Special Commentator.
Dr Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director, CPD, chaired the session.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, CPD, made the keynote presentation.
The WTO's 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) took place from February 26 to March 2, 2024, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Ministers from across the world attended the event to review the functioning of the multilateral trading system and to take action on the future work of the WTO.