Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei (BBN)-Bangladesh is eyeing to export more medicines to Brunei in a bid to expand bilateral trade, the republic’s High Commissioner to Brunei said Tuesday.
Bangladesh Ambassador Mohammed Abdul Hye is confident that his country’s pharmaceutical products can capture a share in the Bruneian market, reports The Brunei Times.
“Quality wise our medicine is good because we also export to European markets too,” Hye told The Brunei Times.
“So from that point view, we have pretty good standing in the pharmaceutical industry,” he said.
Exporting medicines to Brunei will increase the current trade between two countries to US$1 million (approximately $1.24 million), Hye said.
The current trade value between the countries stand at less than $1 million and has been “very low” in the past two decades, Hye said.
“So the target is to reach $1 million in two years’ time,” he said.
He said Brunei imports between US$60 million to US$70 million dollars worth of medicines from different countries.
“If we can get a slice of this (pharmaceutical) market, then we can easily cross the $1 million target,” he said.
Hye said the Bangladeshi pharmaceutical sector needs to offer high quality products at competitive prices to get a share of the Brunei medicine market.
He said Bangladesh’s challenges in trying to penetrate the Brunei market does not come from local policies enforced but rather because the business is “rule-based.”
“We have studied the rules already and we have discussed and shared these rules and regulations and procedures with our suppliers and manufacturers,” he said.
The pharmaceutical sector is one of Bangladesh’s emerging key sectors.
The industry is valued at over US$1 billion and is growing at over 20 per cent annualy, according to a report by UK Trade & Investment. It exports $70 million worth of medicines to Asia, Africa and Europe.
BBN/ANS-20Aug14-4:10pm (BST)