South Korea said Bangladesh can consider Korea as a possible source for procuring training and combat aircraft and high-tech defense hardware to strengthen defense cooperation between the two countries.
The issue came up for discussions at the second Bangladesh–South Korea Foreign Office Consultations held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Korea in Seoul on Wednesday, according to a message received here on Thursday.
On defence cooperation, the Korean side apprised about their expertise in manufacturing training or combat aircraft and high-tech defence hardware, and expressed the hope that Bangladesh would consider Korea as a source of procurement of such items.
Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque led the Bangladesh delegation, while the Korean team was led by its First Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Ambassador CHO Taeyong.
Both sides emphasised having regular high-level visits at political level to bolster the existing bilateral relationship of strategic partnership between the two countries.
The Bangladesh side urged the Korean side to consider establishing direct air connectivity between Dhaka and Seoul.
The meeting discussed the whole breadth of Bangladesh-Korea bilateral relations, including the existing bilateral cooperation in the areas of trade, investment and economy, human resource development and employment, health, climate change, agriculture, civil aviation, and defence, and other important issues such as post-2015 development goals and regional cooperation, including Saarc multimodal connectivity.
The meeting expressed satisfaction at the growing bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Korea while highlighting the issue of the balance of bilateral trade that is heavily in favour of South Korea.
At present, the bilateral trade volume stands at $1.7 billion. The Korean side identified the import of industrial components and raw materials by Korean companies operating in Bangladesh as a major reason for the imbalance and assured of putting in more efforts to narrow the gap.
Both sides also acknowledged that there were huge untapped potentials that need to be harnessed to improve the current level of trade.
The Foreign Secretary apprised his Korean counterpart about the possibility of importing pharmaceutical products, ceramics, more jute and jute products from Bangladesh.
While stressing the need for increased investment in the country, then Bangladesh side requested for Korean support in infrastructural improvement including road and rail connectivity. They also agreed on mutual cooperation to mitigate the effects of climate change.
About Bangladeshis nationals working in South Korea, the Korean side informed that they had already increased the quota for Bangladeshi workers in Korea to 4,600 a year from this year (2014).
While acknowledging that the Employment Permit System (EPS) model is working well, the Bangladesh side requested for employing Bangladeshi seafarers in the RoK ships.
The Vice Minister appreciated the Bangladesh proposal and assured the Foreign Secretary of their due consideration to this matter.
The Foreign Secretary also thanked the Korean side for extending cooperation in the area of health management, including arrangement for training of Bangladeshi nurses, invited them to the 3rd FOC to be held in Dhaka in 2015.
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