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A group of Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs representing eight businesses will lead a trade mission to the United Kingdom (UK) this month.
Their visit will involve high-level discussions with investors, legislators and corporate executives in the UK and promote cross-border trade between the two countries under the UK's Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), according to a statement.
The DCTS is the UK's generous preferential trading scheme which provides duty-free, quota-free access for Bangladesh.
The DCTS gives Bangladesh the opportunity to potentially save £317 million in tariffs annually on the country's exports to the UK, the highest among all countries eligible for DCTS.
British High Commissioner to Bangladesh Sarah Cooke hosted a send-off reception at her residence on Monday to congratulate the entrepreneurs ahead of their departure to the UK, added the statement.
The International Trade Centre is implementing this initiative to bring 50 women-led businesses from four Asian countries (Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Mongolia) and six African countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Mozambique) to Manchester on February 11 to hold business-to-business (B2B) meetings with UK companies.
Women-led companies in the fresh and processed food, textiles and clothing, handicrafts, beauty, information technology and business process outsourcing sectors will have one-on-one meetings with British buyers who want to diversify their supply chains and increase the competitiveness of their products, according to the statement.
The businesses chosen from Bangladesh are: TMSS ICT, Handicrafts, SuperTel, Opus Technology, Tarango Bangladesh, Parijat Bangladesh, TANIS Bangladesh and Leatherina.
Five of these companies already possess the certification needed to enter the UK market and the remaining three are currently being supported by the British Standard Institute (BSI) with necessary accreditation, added the statement.
The trade mission is hosted in partnership with the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and financed by UK Department for International Development as part of the SheTrades Commonwealth+ Programme.
The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce and the West and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce are also supporting the event.
British High Commissioner Sarah Cooke said,"The UK government is incredibly proud to support this remarkable group of Bangladeshi women entrepreneurs to develop new markets in the UK."
Their inventiveness, tenacity, and spirit of entrepreneurship serve as evidence of the enormous potential of Bangladeshi women-led enterprises, she added.