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State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed Islam on Tuesday urged Brunei Darussalam to expand employment opportunities for Bangladeshi workers while calling for stronger bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, energy and connectivity.
She made the call when Brunei Darussalam High Commissioner Haji Haris Bin Othman paid a courtesy visit to her at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to a ministry press release.
During the meeting, the two sides reviewed the current state of Bangladesh-Brunei relations and explored ways to deepen cooperation in several priority sectors, including manpower export, trade and investment, energy and air connectivity.
Highlighting Bangladesh’s growing skilled workforce, Shama Obaed stressed the importance of increasing access to Brunei’s labour market to create more employment opportunities for Bangladeshi nationals.
She also called for stronger business-to-business engagement, saying closer collaboration between the private sectors of the two countries could help unlock the untapped potential of bilateral trade and investment.
To strengthen commercial ties, the state minister proposed greater cooperation between women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh and Brunei and suggested establishing a Bangladesh-Brunei Chamber of Commerce to facilitate trade, investment and business networking.
The Brunei High Commissioner welcomed the proposals and reaffirmed his country’s commitment to expanding economic cooperation with Bangladesh through enhanced trade and investment.
Shama also sought wider market access in Brunei for Bangladeshi products, particularly pharmaceuticals, jute and jute goods, agricultural products and fresh mangoes, noting that these sectors have strong export potential.
As part of efforts to boost private-sector collaboration, both sides agreed to work towards forming a joint business group comprising chambers of commerce, entrepreneurs and investors from the two countries to identify new areas of cooperation and promote bilateral business partnerships.
The meeting reflected the shared commitment of Bangladesh and Brunei to further strengthening their longstanding friendly relations through enhanced economic engagement and people-to-people connectivity.