Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industries president Rizwan Rahman believes the manufacturing and service sectors of Bangladesh have high potential for returns on foreign investment, and encouraged Sri Lankan entrepreneurs to invest their capital accordingly.

The DCCI president made the call when high commissioner of Sri Lanka in Bangladesh, Prof. Sudharshan D.S. Seneviratne called on him on Tuesday.

Rizwan said that bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka reached USD $ 165.04 million in FY 2020-21, where Bangladesh's export was US$ 47.32 million and import US$ 117.72 million.

He said that Bangladesh mainly exports pharmaceuticals, RMG and seeds, on the other hand machinery, textiles, chemical, mineral products, base metal import form Sri Lanka.

To utilize the untapped trade and investment potentials, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can sign Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and collaboration in ICT, outsourcing, tourism and engineering solutions, he opined.

Rizwan also said that Sri Lanka can be an attractive destination for Bangladeshi investors.

Sri Lankan High Commissioner Prof. Sudharshan D.S. Seneviratne said that Bangladesh has huge potential in the growing 'blue economy' sector centring the Bay of Bengal.

Moreover there are huge opportunities to work jointly for the win-win development in the blue economy sector.

He said that signing of a preferential trade agreement (PTA) with Bangladesh is in progress, and hopes that the governments can sign it soon.

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If the performance of PTA is good then initiative can be taken to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) in future, he added.

He also expressed his hope to increase the bilateral trade volume to USD 1 billion in the next five years.

The high commissioner also invited Bangladeshi investors to invest in the tourism, agriculture, shipping and logistic sector in Sri Lanka.

Srimali Jayarathne, First Secretary (Commercial), High Commission of Sri Lanka in Bangladesh and DCCI Senior Vice President Arman Haque, among others, were present during the meeting.