President Kabbah Holds Talks With Bangladeshi Prime Minister.
By Yusuf Alghali

Tuesday 21st October 2003: Rounding up his week-long visit to Malaysia Tuesday, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah arrived at the Zia International Airport in Dhaka, capital city of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, at the start of his three-day official visit to the country.

The President, who was received on arrival by his Bangladeshi counterpart, President Professor Dr. Iajuddin Ahmed and Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, later held bilateral discussions with the Prime Minister together with senior members of her cabinet.In the ensuing discussions, President Kabbah indicated his readiness to establish as well as develop strong investment and technological links with Bangladesh, a country with which he said Sierra Leone had a lot in common.

Answering to questions from the press outside Prime Minister Zia’s office following their closed-door talks, President Kabbah described the meeting as useful and acknowledged that export and trade issues had indeed formed part of the discussions.

The two leaders agreed to increase co-operation in a number of areas, including agriculture, trade, education, textile, garments and pharmaceuticals. Bangladesh is reputed to be among the leading producers of generic drugs and indications are that Freetown and Dhaka may soon finalise mutual co-operation agreement in the pharmaceutical domain.

During his earlier visit to the Dhaka Export Processing Zone (DEPZ) and the Garment Factory at DEPZ in Savar, Dhaka, President Kabbah expressed profound interest in having business alliances or joint venture business investments established between Bangladeshi garment manufacturers and their Sierra Leonean counterparts, after due consultations with the Ministry of Trade as well as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Freetown.

Later, the Head of State and entourage, including Secretary to the President Sheka Mansaray, Foreign Minister Momodu Koroma, Agriculture Minister Sama Mondeh and Ambassador Haja Alarie Cole, viewed the Bangladesh Textile Exposition (BATEXPO) at Hotel Sonargaon, organized by the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). He disclosed that his country’s door was wide open to genuine investors and businesspeople, pointing out that as developing countries, both the Republics of Bangladesh and Sierra Leone must collaborate for their mutual advantages in the spirit of South-South Co-operation.

Shortly before attending a state banquet and cultural show hosted in his honour Wednesday evening, President Kabbah and delegation had detailed discussions at his Sheraton hotel suite with a number of Bangladesh’s government representatives on a comprehensive range of issues. Prominent among those with whom discussions were held were the Foreign Minister, Mr. Morshed Khan, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Hassan Morshud Chowdhury, the Minister of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, Mr. Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan and the Minister of Textiles, Mr. Abdul Matin Chowdhury, who agreed with President Kabbah’s earlier suggestion about the need to have an exchange of exploratory visits by each of the two country’s chambers of commerce institutions.

Led by the Minister for Liberation War Affairs, Professor M. Rezaul Karim, President Kabbah solemnly laid a wreath at the National Martyrs Memorial in Savar and proceeded to plant a sapling at the memorial site as a bugler plays the Last Post.

MALAYSIA:

During the final leg of his of visit and consultations with key Malaysian business enterprises and investment institutions, President Kabbah was taken on an inspection tour of the highly successful Malaysian Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) in Jempol, Negeri Sembilan, over 150 kilometres outside Kuala Lumpur.

FELDA is a Malaysian government-supported project, designed to encourage farming families to maximize the cultivation of oil palm, by relocating them into well-furnished settlements near the plantations. Over the years, Malaysians have developed their palm oil industry to such an extent that every single part of the oil palm plant has been put into some profitable industrial use. Apart from the crude palm oil itself, which can be processed into a thoroughly refined brand of cholesterol-free cooking oil, margarine, butter, sausage, ice cream powder, herbal soaps, oil-based cosmetics, vitamins and engine fuel, the fronds, trunks, kernel shells and fibre (biomass) that remain after the oil had been pressed, could also be processed to produce electric energy, animal feed, paper, hard-board and a range of other household utensils. Workers at the palm oil mill say energy from oil palm wastes provide some five percent of the total electricity consumed at the mill.

Obviously impressed with what he saw, President Kabbah reiterated his keenness about getting the Malaysians to help boost Sierra Leone’s oil palm production and processing through the transfer of appropriate technology and skills, joint-venture investment and expertise. He said he would leave no stone unturned in efforts to import the skills and know-how behind the FELDA oil palm success story.

BANGLADESH:

President Kabbah, before departing Dhaka Thursday 23rd October for Dubai, addressed members of the Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) at a special luncheon meeting held at the Dhaka Sheraton. He spoke about the vast business investment potentials that currently exist in Sierra Leone, urging members of the FBCCI to expedite the dispatching of a delegation to Sierra Leone soonest.

In his statement earlier, President of the FBCCI, Mr. Abdul Awal Mintoo, said he was pleased to note that during bilateral discussions, certain sectors were identified for immediate cooperation to enhance trade and economic ties between the two developing nations in the sphere of medicines, agriculture, leather products, electronics, toiletries, household goods and ready-made garments.

He disclosed that Bangladesh had made “tremendous progress over the past several years in cereal crops and vegetable production”. He added: “It is our agriculture community that effectively transformed this country from a basket case of economy in distress to a situation of food autarky.” He said Bangladesh also now had a state of the art diamond-cutting factory. “Keeping these elements in mind, we believe there are economic and trade benefits to be gained by bringing together the supply of diamonds from Sierra Leone and the cutting, polishing of diamonds and making designed jewelry in Bangladesh for export, as well as for the internal market,” Mr. Mintoo told President Kabbah, who wraps up his three-day official visit to Bangladesh today.

Following his brief visit to Dubai the President and entourage will return home Monday 27th October.