Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- India has offered Bangladesh US$1.0 billion credit with LIBOR plus (London Inter-bank Offered Rate) 2.5 percent rates, an official of Indian Commerce Department said in Dhaka on Thursday.
He said the fund would be channeled through Exim Bank of India and Ministry of Commerce and Industry will be the guarantor of the US$1.0billion line of credit.
"Indian commerce ministry offered Bangladesh the US1b line of credit. It is a soft credit and not a conditional one," Arvind Mehta, Joint Secretary, Foreign Trade for South Asia, Department of Commerce, told reporters on the concluding day of a two-day 9th round meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Trade at the Bangladesh Secretariat in the capital Dhaka.
Joint secretary of the Commerce Ministry Shahabuddin Patwary led Bangladesh delegation while the Indian bureaucrat guided the high-level Indian side.
Arvind Mehta said Bangladesh can use the credit for many purposes such as infrastructure development and solar energy.
He said different related issues of the two countries came up for discussion during the JWG meeting.
He favourd signing of the motor vehicle agreement saying, if the agreement is signed, Bangladesh will be able to pick goods and move to any place in India.
Besides, the official said India is ready to provide Bangladesh with 500-MW hydropower to give a big boost to the Bangladesh economy.
Shahabuddin Patwary described the two-day JWG meet as successful one and said Bangladesh and India at the 9th round meeting put weight on exploring more opportunities toward a new Dhaka-Delhi trade regime with removing trade barriers and opening their markets further for reciprocal benefits.
Many issues especially opening 22 new border haats, strengthening of road, rail, water and air connectivity, easing compliance issues and removing bottlenecks to trade were discussed during the meeting.
Coastal shipping, container train service, protocol on inland water transit and trade, waiving countervailing (CVD) duty for garment export, development of land ports in India and removal of tariff on essential commodities also came up for discussion in the meeting.
The JWG on trade was established under the framework of the bilateral trade agreement that deals with issues of border infrastructure, trade facilitation and identification and removal of trade barriers. The 8th meeting of the JWG on trade was held in New Delhi on 13-14 June, 2013.
BBN/SSR/AD-13Mar14-11:24 pm (BST)