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‘Resolve hassles to promote trade via Mongla port’
KATHMANDU, JAN 17 - Experts and business entrepreneurs urged for resolving procedural hurdles and minimising transport hassles to promote Nepali trade through the Bangladeshi ports.
The businessmen do not feel convenient to transport their goods through the route, because of procedural complications, said Namgyal Lama, President of Nepal Freight Forwarders Association (NFFA).
According to Lama, Nepali exporters face major complications while submitting separate export document ~ ~ to each of the Indian and Bangladeshi customs offices and while re-loading carriages at Bangladeshi customs point.
"As Nepal does not have a transport agreement with Bangladesh, Nepali vehicles cannot go beyond this customs point and thus the Nepali exports have to re-load their goods in Bangladeshi vehicles at that point," he said.
In addition to this, the absence of land immigration office at Banglabandh has also affected Nepali exports, claims Shanker Man Singh, Executive Secretary of Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC).
He further informed that the nearest land immigration office in Bangladesh is at Rangpur, which is 43 kilometres far from Banglabandh. "This has created huge problem to the exporters because they have to please Bangladeshi officials at Banglabandh to acquire visa," he added.
According to the exporters, the road and communications infrastructures along the route are the other hurdles that Nepali exporters are facing in the trading route through Bangladesh.
Responding to complaints of the Nepali exporters, Bangladeshi Ambassador to Nepal Humayan Kabir said that the problems could be sort out through bilateral dialogues.
He however added, the real problems can be identified once the trade volume increases.
"If Mongla port is used for foreign trade in large scale, we can sort out the bottlenecks. The Bangladeshi government is always ready to review the procedures and ease the transit process," he added. Bangladesh is currently providing a 50 per cent rebate on port tariffs at Mongla port.
Mongla port is one among two seaports that Nepal currently uses in Bangladesh to transport merchandise goods to third countries. After a long delay, the Indian government had allowed Nepal to use the Bangladeshi route as a transit for the foreign trade in 1997.
Despite the hope that the new route can prove a best alternative, the trade through this route is not satisfactory.
Statistics reveals that the trade through Bangladesh makes less than 0.1 per cent of Nepal’s total trade volume.Nepal had exported goods worth Rs 37.67 million and imported goods worth Rs 58.15 millions in the first six months of the current fiscal year.Posted on: 2004-01-18 02:30
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