Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque made the request during a meeting with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh at the Vietnam Foreign Ministry, Hanoi on Wednesday.
Referring to the friendly ties between Bangladesh and Vietnam, Shahidul emphasised on exploiting the complementarities between the two countries in trade, investment, agriculture, SMEs and other areas of cooperation.
The Vietnamese Foreign Minister responded saying Hanoi attaches value to its ties with Dhaka; and looked forward to exploring potential areas of cooperation in concrete terms, said the Foreign Ministry here.
Highlighting that the annual bilateral trade has already surpassed US$ one billion mark, he emphasised on early convening of the Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) as well as Joint Trade Commission in Vietnam.
Both of them also agreed on greater exchange of visits at the official level and deepening of people-to-people contact.
The Foreign Secretary, earlier, addressed a discussion on ‘Missed Opportunity: Diaspora Networks’ at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual Asean Summit and called for re-looking at diaspora.
He called for the origin societies to value their diaspora across countries as “asset” for the country to attract and mobilise them in the development of the origin country.
The Foreign Secretary stressed on public policies to be proactive and flexible, societies to be welcoming and facilitating to attract and sustain the members of their diaspora in respective countries.
He cited various polices adopted by the Bangladesh government in engaging Bangladeshi diaspora from the world over in its development.
The discussion was moderated by Reuters Associate Editor Clara Ferreira Marques and joined by Jose Isidro Camacho, Vice-Chairman of Asia-Pacific Credit Suisse AG, Professor of London School of Economics and Political Science Lutfey Siddiqi.
The Foreign Secretary discussed with Borge Brende, President of the WEF, issues of interests between Bangladesh and the WEF.
He had a TV interview by the CNN on the Rohingya issue where he highlighted a range of humanitarian and generous steps taken by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in addressing the issue, situation of the Rohingya people in Bangladesh and the status of their repatriation in light of his recent visit to Myanmar.