Although China has offered Bangladesh duty-free access for 99% of its products, Bangladesh hasn't been able to take advantage of this benefit because there is no direct trade or transit link between the two countries.
Since 2018, Bangladesh shifted its focus toward strengthening sub-regional connectivity. The government planned to create transit links with Nepal and Bhutan and looked for opportunities to send exports to China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan using land routes through India. However, despite repeated proposals during bilateral talks, these initiatives have not been implemented.
According to relevant sources, the sub-regional connectivity initiative involving Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Bhutan, launched to boost trade among South Asian countries, has not brought significant benefits to Bangladesh. If China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have been connected to this system, Bangladesh could have gained significant advantages. Even formally presenting this proposal to India, it has yet to be put into action.
Additionally, while trucks carrying goods from Nepal and Bhutan were granted access to Bangladesh through India’s Siliguri Corridor, our country would be benefitted. Bangladesh has repeatedly requested but failed to gain permission to use the same corridor for transporting goods to Nepal and Bhutan. As a result, effective connectivity with these two countries could not be established.
A review of recent data shows that the annual trade volume among Bangladesh and its transit-linked partners--India, Nepal, and Bhutan amounts to about USD 26 billion. Of this, Bangladesh's trade accounts for only USD 4.5 billion. The remaining USD 21.5 billion is split, with half belonging to India, and the other half shared between Nepal and Bhutan.
A review of bilateral trade statistics reveals that India exports five times more goods to Bangladesh than Bangladesh exports to India. In the 2023-24 fiscal year, Bangladesh imported USD 9.7 billion worth of goods from India, while its exports to India amounted to only USD 1.56 billion. Even landlocked countries like Nepal and Bhutan export significantly more to Bangladesh than Bangladesh exports to them. During the first nine months (July–March) of the 2024–25 fiscal year, Bangladesh exported USD 277 million worth of goods to Nepal and Bhutan, while imports from those countries totaled USD 1.172 billion.
Officials from the Ministry of Commerce stated that while sub-regional connectivity was established with India, Nepal, and Bhutan, Bangladesh sought further expansion — particularly the opportunity to export goods to China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan using Indian territory.
According to related sources, under existing bilateral trade agreements, countries can use each other’s territory to transport goods to third countries. However, so far, discussions have only focused on connectivity with Nepal and Bhutan.
Much discussion has taken place about the BBIN agreement (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal) to establish a four-nation regional connectivity framework. However, Bangladesh has argued that implementing transit facilities with only Nepal and Bhutan would not be commercially very beneficial due to the low volume of trade with these two countries. Based on this, in 2018, Bangladesh requested transit access through Indian territory to export goods to three neighboring countries — China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
Later, during the Joint Trade Commission (JTC) meeting held in Dhaka on September 26, 2023, Bangladesh formally proposed extending transshipment opportunities not only to Nepal and Bhutan but also to China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Bangladesh expressed its interest in establishing effective connectivity with all countries that share a border with India. However, this proposal remained only on paper.
Instead of receiving this access, what Bangladesh was granted was the facility to use Indian land ports for transporting goods by air to third countries, a transshipment facility that India canceled just last week.
On the topic of sub-regional connectivity in South Asia, Dr. Selim Raihan, Executive Director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM), recently told Bangladesh Pratidin that the concept of transit entails developing multi-modal and effective connectivity across road, river, air, and rail within a region or sub-region. This has not been implemented in practice. What has been done so far can be categorized as bilateral connectivity between Bangladesh and India, and partially with Nepal and Bhutan which, in reality it has yielded little tangible benefit for Bangladesh.
(Translated by Afia Nanjiba Ibnat)
Bd-pratidin English
