President of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) Hossain Khaled has sought initiatives for establishing South African mission in Bangladesh and easing the visa process, especially for the Bangladeshi businessmen, reports UNB. He discussed the issues with South African High Commissioner Jeoff Doidge at a city hotel recently, said a press release on Tuesday. DCCI Senior Vice President Humayun Rashid, Vice President M Shoaib Choudhury and Secretary General AHM Rezaul Kabir were also present at the meeting. Mr Khaled invited South African investors to invest in infrastructure, coal, shipbuilding, leather, and footwear, pharmaceuticals, power and energy sector of Bangladesh. He also said South Africa can hire skilled and semi-skilled workforce for their industries from Bangladesh. The DCCI President said both Bangladeshi and South African entrepreneurs can join hands to tap the potentials of blue economy in Bangladesh. Mr Doidge said though the balance of trade is in favour of Bangladesh, the bottleneck in increasing two-way trade is lack of adequate know-how among the businessmen of both the countries. He also said exchange of effective trade delegations, frequent arrangements of B2B meetings and trade fairs in both the countries will help expand business. The diplomat invited Bangladeshi investors to invest in RMG sector in South Africa as there is a huge demand for Bangladeshi apparels. He stressed maintaining mutually beneficial trade ties among the businessmen of both the countries and mentioned that for Bangladeshi investors South Africa can be a hub for investing in continental Africa. Both of them agreed that Bangladesh and South Africa are two very potential countries in respect of business and investment. DCCI President Hossain Khaled stressed the need for frequent exchange of trade delegation between the two countries.
