"Bangladesh has been benefited significantly from Canada's liberal trading policies and its export to Canada has tripled over last five years since 2000," said Robert Beadle, acting high commissioner of Canada to Bangladesh.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a seminar on "Export to Canada" at Sonargaon Hotel. The seminar was jointly organised by Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) & Trade Facilitation Office, Canada (TFOC) with the financial support from Canadian International Development Agency (Cida).

The seminar laid emphasis on diversification of Bangladesh's export basket, which will help meet the challenges of WTO trade regime.

Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury, Adviser to Commerce Ministry Barkat Ullah Bulu, Commerce Secretary Faruq Ahmed Siddiqui and Acting vice Chairman of EPB Mustafa Mohiuddin also spoke.

Beadle said as per the commitment of his country's Prime Minister Paul Martin, Cida recently launched a US $ 10 million 'Local Enterprise Investment Centre' (LEIC) in Bangladesh to provide new technologies, knowledge and skills to local SMEs. This facility is the first of its kind set up by Canada anywhere in the world, he added.

Commerce Minister Altaf Hossain Choudhury said Bangladesh export to Canada increased 140 percent in last FY compared to the previous year after implementation of duty and quota free market access and relaxation of the rules of origin by Canada.

The two-way trade between Bangladesh and Canada stood at over US $ 410 million in 2004. Of the total volume Bangladesh's export to Canada was US $335 million and import US $75 million.

Bangladesh mainly imports energy and telecommunications equipment, food grains, pulp and metals from Canada while the major Bangladeshi exports to Canada include readymade garments and frozen foods.