Luxembourg looks to deepen ties with Bangladesh

Decades after establishing diplomatic ties, Luxembourg is taking a fresh look at Bangladesh to deepen the political, economical, trade and cultural ties.

“We want to show that Luxembourg wants to take relations with Bangladesh to a new level,” Sam Schreiner, Luxembourg Ambassador to India, has told bdnews24.com.

It recently appointed a leading designer Nasreen Zamir as the first honorary consul in Dhaka.

The western European country is known as Europe’s most powerful investment management centre.

It is one of the first European countries that recognised independent Bangladesh in early 1972. But there is no active engagement between the countries since there is no mission in each other’s capital.

The new honorary consul, after taking oath in Dhaka in June, told bdnews24.com that she was looking forward to giving a new beginning to the relations.

“We are very fortunate to have her. We count on her,” the ambassador said on Dec 10.

“For her great network, we’ll have closer relationship with your beautiful country which is not well-known in Luxemburg and vice versa….I don’t think many people in Bangladesh know Luxembourg very well. With her help we are sure we can change that,” Schreiner added.

Reliable friend

From Oct 15 to Oct 21, Nasreen made her first official visit to Luxembourg when she met the Grand Duke at the Grand Ducal Palace on Oct 18.

She also met her Luxembourg counterpart Thierry Reisch, representatives from the ministry of foreign affairs, economy, the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, the university and a number of private businesses, among others.

As an interior designer by profession, she promotes design and 'Made in Bangladesh'. The Duke suggested her to even showcase Bangladesh’s unique arts and crafts in Luxembourg to promote the country as a tourism destination.

Luxembourg's English language magazine Delano interviewed her and ran a story headlined “New perspectives on Bangladesh” where she highlighted Bangladesh’s economic growth and the potential.

“I found them most intelligent, focused, with lots of humility and definitely very reliable,” she told bdnews24.com on Thursday while speaking about the new level of engagements between the countries.

Banking road show

Ambassador Schreiner, who came to Dhaka earlier in December to attend the Global Forum on Migration and Development, which ended on Dec 13, said they were specifically looking for scopes to provide some technical expertise in the financial field.

He said they can offer specialised training for the bankers, particularly for the central bank, with their modern technologies for management. “That is definitely something we are looking at,” he said.

The honorary consul, Nasreen, said during her meetings she found Luxembourg was ready to help Bangladesh in many ways – be it in education or financial sector management.

She said she had already planned to organise a ‘banking road show’ in Bangladesh so that Luxembourg's financial firms can come and showcase their expertise.

“I think we can profit from their knowledge."

Nasreen said during her visit she had highlighted Bangladesh’s ready-made clothes, education, and IT sector.

She also met Cargolux to discuss the possibility of making Bangladesh a destination for freight carriers.

At the Luxembourg University, she met Tonie van Dam, in charge of international relations, at the faculty of science, communication and technology to explore the possibility of scholarships for Bangladesh students.

“I found all of them positive. And I think we can really do something new to strengthen our relations,” she said.