Turkey wants to set up its own office in Bangladesh to continue its operations for boosting the bilateral cooperation as well as trade and commerce.

Like other development partners like JICA, JETRO, and KOICA, Turkey wants to set up such kind of office in Bangladesh to boost bilateral and technical cooperation and trade.

Vice President of Turkey Fuat Oktay expressed such interest when Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal met him at Ankara in Turkey on November 21, said a Finance Ministry press release.

Fuat opined that setting up of such kind of office in Dhaka would automatically enhance manifold the bilateral trade.

In response, the Finance Minister assured the Turkish vice president that the government would consider the matter.

Bangladesh Ambassador to Turkey M Allama Siddiqui and Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs M Daud Ali, were present, among others.

Mentioning that there is no alternative to repatriation of the forcibly displaced Rohingyas to Myanmar, Kamal sought support from Turkey to resolve this problem.

Turkish Vice President said his country would put much more international pressure so that this problem could come to a solution.

Noting that the Rohingyas are Muslims, Kamal proposed that the Muslim majority countries could share and give shelter to this Rohingyas who are now staying in Bangladesh and thus this problem could be resolve to a big extent.

In response, the Turkish Vice President said he would take the matter to the President.

Kamal also sought cooperation from Turkey in the fields of ICT.

Turning to the bilateral trade relations, Fuat said Bangladesh could supply more the agro-processed foods, jute and jute-made goods, processed fruits including mangoes, lichies, jackfruits and pineapple to Turkish market and other markets while Turkey would extend cooperation in this regard.

He also suggested that Bangladesh could supply leather goods as well as meat to Turkish market where Turkey could extend support in case of getting the necessary Halal certification.

Referring to the visit

of the then Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Dhaka in 2010 where he pledged to raise the bilateral trade volume to $3 billion from $400 million, the Turkish Vice President

said that the diplomatic ties between the two countries is now good and Bangladesh could export those items to Turkey which have a very good demand in Turkey.