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Published : 16 Mar 2022, 10:53 AM
Prince Faisal led a Saudi team to high-level talks with Bangladeshi officials at Dhaka’s Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel on Wednesday.
“We are very proud of our brotherly relations with Bangladesh and we are very optimistic about the future of this relationship,” he said after the meeting. “We had an excellent round of political consultation this morning.”
“Most importantly, we explored how we can expand our partnership. We have a historically strong relationship. We are brotherly nations and we already work very closely.”
Some 2.5 million Bangladeshis already live, work and contribute to the developmental journey of Saudi Arabia, he said, and Saudi companies are already present in Bangladesh and have contributed several billion dollars of direct investment, Prince Faisal said.
“We are committed to building on this strong foundation to a much, much broader partnership in our bilateral relationship.”
During the talks, a clear agenda was laid out in collaboration with Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, who led the Bangladeshi delegation.
The two sides also discussed the issues of mutual interest in the regional and multilateral arena.
Increased bilateral trade and investment, recruitment of skilled manpower, Hajj management, education, health, environment and climate change, ICT and tourism were among the issues that came up for review.
The two foreign ministers met one-on-one at the same location before a joint consultation with larger delegations.
'SAUDI COMMITTED TO STABLE OIL MARKET'
Despite the recent disruption of the oil market caused by the war in Ukraine, Saudi Arabia will ensure the supply of oil to Bangladesh will be stable, Prince Faisal said.
“We are committed to a stable oil market,” Prince Faisal said in response to a question from the media following the meeting. “There is no concern regarding the supply of oil.”
Saudi Arabia is the second-largest oil producer in the world. It produces about 11 million barrels of crude oil per day, or about 11 percent of the world’s total.
The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation imports about 700,000 tonnes of light crude from Saudi Arabian state company Aramco a year.
Russia, the third-largest oil producer in the world, exports nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil a day, most of which goes to Europe.
But, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the price of oil on the world market shot past $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014 on Feb 24.
As the US and other nations imposed sanctions on Russia, the price of oil rose to $139 a barrel, the highest since 2008.
Though the price of oil has now dropped down to around $100 a barrel once again, the market remains unstable. Bangladeshis have been concerned about the effects of a lengthy war on the price of oil, inflation and oil supply.
20 MORE FIRMS KEEN TO INVEST IN BANGLADESH
Prince Faisal stressed the need to enhance collaboration in trade and investment and stated that some Saudi companies have already invested in some sectors in Bangladesh and some other companies are considering greater engagement in various areas.
After the meeting, Momen said 20 more Saudi companies were interested in investing in Bangladesh.
“Saudi government and companies are eager to get involved in our economic zones,” he said.
Momen expressed his keenness to scale up the level of engagement and proposed a time-bound roadmap to enhance the relationship, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
He identified six new areas of engagement for future collaboration and partnership with the Saudi Green Initiative undertaken by the Saudi crown prince to plant 10 billion trees in the Gulf state and 50 billion trees across the Middle East.
“We’ve requested them to partner with us in the project. We want to supply trees and take responsibility for their maintenance and growth,” Momen said.
The other areas of interest are: Saudi investments in the Bangabandhu Industrial City in Chattogram, the tourism and hotel industry and the IT sector.
At the end of the consultations, both leaders signed two instruments: an agreement on cooperation and mutual assistance in customs matters and a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the Foreign Service Academies of the two countries.
On prospects of new Saudi companies’ engagement in Bangladesh, Prince Faisal said several firms are already involved with billions of dollars in investments.
“We are extremely optimistic about the future of Bangladesh, we see a significant interest from Saudi companies to be present here in Bangladesh and we are working together with our partners to widen that cooperation to expand the potential that exists between our two countries.”
He sought policy and institutional support from Bangladesh and suggested that launching a joint business forum and exchange of business delegation between the two countries could augment bilateral trade and business.
Prince Faisal said he and Momen reached an agreement to set “specific targets” for trade and investment.
Momen said, “Saudi Arabia is focused on food security. We’ve expressed solidarity with them and said we’ll work together on this.”
Both leaders expressed satisfaction at the close alignment of positions on all major global issues, such as stability, security, state sovereignty and the upholding of the UN Charter.
Momen also sought cooperation from the Saudi side for sustainable repatriation and ensuring justice for the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals. The Saudi foreign minister assured him of all support in the resolution of the Rohingya refugee crisis.
Prince Faisal and his delegation also paid a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Ganabhaban. After the brief tour, he flew back to the Gulf state on Wednesday afternoon.
HAJJ IMMIGRATION
Momen said he asked Prince Faisal to consider completing the immigration process of Bangladeshis for Hajj pilgrimage, which is done upon entering Saudi Arabia, in Dhaka to ease visa processing and reduce the stress on devotees.
“He told me that the clearance will be completed in Bangladesh this year to end the harassment.”
Following two years of suspension due to the pandemic, the Saudi government announced facilitating Hajj pilgrimage for foreigners this year.
The Gulf state completed Hajj ceremonies with 10,000 devotees living in Saudi Arabia in 2020 before 60,000 Saudi citizens attended the pilgrimage last year.
Before the pandemic, around 2.5 million people travelled to Saudi Arabia for Hajj every year, which included more than 100,000 Bangladeshis.
Countries with a large number of pilgrims are making special arrangements to complete the immigration processes domestically to relieve the worshippers from waiting at Saudi airport for hours.
