Bangladesh would be able to achieve its export target set for the current fiscal year, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said on Sunday. “We hope that our export target will be fulfilled this fiscal year,” the commerce minister told reporters at his secretariat office. Before the press briefing, Swedish ambassador in Bangladesh Charlotta Schlyter met the commerce minister and discussed bilateral issues with him. “The World Bank said the country is on right track to graduate from the Least Developed Country (LDC) status. Most recently the Global Economic Prospects, a report of the WB, mentioned that the economic activity in Bangladesh will be brighter between the fiscal years (FYs) 2018-19 and 2019-2020, benefiting from strong domestic demand and strengthening exports,” the minister said. He also mentioned that Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen made remark earlier that Bangladesh had performed better than Pakistan in terms of economic and social development and better than Indian in some sectors. Besides, Indian economist Dr Kaushik Basu and PricewaterhouseCoopers as well as different countries praised the Bangladesh’s economic success, he said. “We had achievements during the WTO conference in Nairobi. The WTO ministerial conference had unanimously approved the decision of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council with respect to the extension of transition period until 2033.” He added: “Bangladesh is going to become a developing country. It has fulfilled three criteria for graduation to a developing country according to UN Economic and Social Council.” An evaluation about Bangladesh would be conducted in March 2018 again, Mr Tofail said, adding that after the evaluation, a decision would be taken that the country is going to graduate from Least Developed Country (LDC) status. Secretary of the ministry of commerce Shubhashish Bose and other high officials of the ministry were also present at the press briefing.
