By TON Research Desk

On Wednesday, the World Bank approved the funding to help national trade in Nepal and Bangladesh. Nepal, Bangladesh would get $1 billion to increase regional trade and connectivity. The Accelerating Transport and Trade Connectivity in Eastern South Asia (ACCESS) Programme Phase 1 will help the respective governments to remove the key obstacles to regional trade physical and paper-based trade processes, insufficient conveyance, trade substructure, preventive trade and transport rules and procedures.

The Phase 1 programme will substitute long manual and paper-based trade procedures with digitized mechanical solutions in Bangladesh and Nepal. The computerization will enable faster border crossing times and install electronic tracking of truck entry and exit, electronic queuing, smart parking, and CCTV cameras.

The programme will also help advance designated road passages and will also elevate key land harbors and custom infrastructure while safeguarding a green and climate-resilient construction. This will help the incorporation of landlocked Nepal and Bhutan with the neighboring countries of Bangladesh. The regional trade suggests huge unexploited prospective for the countries of South Asia.

Nowadays, regional trade accounts for only five percent of South Asia’s total trade, while in East Asia it accounts for 50 percent according to the World Bank Vice President for South Asia. South Asia economic will grow significantly and create opportunities for millions of people by increasing regional trade and connectivity.

The $753.45 million financing for the Accelerating Transport and Trade Connectivity in Eastern South Asia (ACCESS) Project in Bangladesh will promote the 43km section of the two-lane Sylhet-Charkai-Sheola to a climate-resilient four-lane road, connecting the Sheola Land Port with the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway. This will cut down travel time by 30 percent.

The project will upkeep digital systems, infrastructure, and will streamline processes at Benapole, Bhomra, and Burimari land ports, the three largest land ports in Bangladesh handling approximately 80 percent of land-based trade. It will also support the modernization of the Chattogram customs house which handles 90 percent of all import/export declarations in Bangladesh.

While the trade between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal grew six times from 2015 to 2019, the unexploited potential for regional trade is estimated at 93 percent for Bangladesh,” said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan. “The project will help Bangladesh improve regional trade and transport and automation of processes will build resilience to crises like the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The $275 million ACCESS Project in Nepal will upgrade the 69km two-lane section of Butwal-Gorusinghe-Chanauta road along the East-West Highway to a climate-resilient four-lane highway, with a focus on ensuring better road safety. This is expected to reduce travel time by 30 percent, thus providing better access to India’s western seaports.

The project will make at least three market areas along the highway with devoted areas for women businesspersons and dealers to safeguard the women and will benefit from the enhanced economic opportunities.

The market areas will prepared with separate washrooms for women, free Wi-Fi, and digital bulletin boards with timely trade and market information. It will also support capacity building to enhance trade and customs processes at Birgunj and Bhairahawa border points. The project will also help advance Nepal’s preparedness and subsequent implementation of the Motor Vehicle Agreement (MVA).

According to World Bank Nepal has huge unused possible for regional trade and exports. Low regional trade is often a result of the high cost of connectivity. The project will help solve Nepal’s economic potential through improved trade connection both between the provinces as well as regionally among Nepal and other states to support a green, strong, and inclusive development.

It is highly critical to ensure trade growth, long-term sustainability and resilience of investments, while minimizing actual degradation on the environment, wildlife and ecosystems along with Nepal’s road network, which carries 90 percent of passengers and goods movement,” said World Bank Task Team Leader of the Nepal Project and co-Task Team Leader of the Programme. “The project will adopt and implement an innovative green and resilient highway corridor concept in Nepal, based on a landscape-level development approach.”

In the second phase, the programme will include Bhutan. A key focus of the Accelerating Transport and Trade Connectivity in Eastern South Asia (ACCESS) programme is to support solutions that will most efficiently decrease times at trade gateways, which will reduce trade prices. This will result more border collaboration and management between countries and will finish the corporeal review of goods, as it tantamount to simplifying procedures and practices.

DHAKA, 03 July 2022, (TON): Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen formally inaugurated the new own three-storey chancery building of Bangladesh Embassy on a land plot of 2,000 square metres in Lisbon, Portugal.

He said after inauguration the new building "this building is not just a mere construction or enclosure, but bears our message to our friends in Portugal that we value our shared history, that we cherish our present-day human connectivity, and that we look to our shared future with much anticipation and optimism.”

A foreign ministry press release said “Dr Momen said that the chancery building symbolises the presence of a transforming Bangladesh and stands poised to enhance its global footprints by surging ahead with its value-based diplomacy in pursuit of its national development aspirations.”

After unveiling the inaugural plaque and cutting the ribbon, the Foreign Minister paid his homage to the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by placing a floral wreath at his mural portrait lying on the wall of the chancery building.

NEW DELHI, 03 July 2022, (TON): A local online news agency “eighty Myanmar citizens were arrested in India, in Lankar town, Manipur State on 28 June, according to the Zogam Daily.”

According to reports received by Mizzima, police from the Churachandpur District of Manipur carried out house-to-house searches in Manipur's Lankar Town between the hours of 5:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. on 28 June.

They detained and arrested 80 people, all Myanmar citizens, under suspicion of being illegal immigrants.

Of these, 25 were men, 35 were women and 20 were children. Currently, it is not known where they are being held.

A Myanmar citizen who is trying to evade the police in Manipur said “I am still on the run and in hiding. We don't know the condition of the detained people. They can't be contacted, I think their phones have been confiscated.”

DHAKA, 03 July 2022, (TON): Agriculture Minister Md Abdur Razzak called on president of Wageningen University and Research Dr Sjoukye Heimovaara at Bangladesh Bhaban on his way to participate six months long floriade expo 2022 in the Netherlands.

During the meeting, they discussed on practical researches in order to increase production, diversification, conservation and marketing of agricultural goods through adopting advanced technology and applying the findings of fundamental research.

The minister said “Bangladesh achieved self-reliance and significant success in its agriculture sector in the last decade and also managed to move up in the list of top 10 countries in the world in terms of producing various grains and vegetables.”

DHAKA, 03 July 2022, (TON): Sudhakar Dalela, who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1993, is likely to be the next high commissioner of India to Dhaka.

Though there is no official announcement yet, the Hindustan Times reported that Dalela will replace current Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram Kumar Doraiswami.

Doraiswami, who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1992, is expected to take over as Indian envoy to the United Kingdom, said the Indian media outlet.

Doraiswami assumed charge as the high commissioner of India to Bangladesh on October 5, 2020.

DHAKA, 03 July 2022, (TON): Islami Andolon Bangladesh amir Syed Muhammad Rezaul Karim alleged that the knee-jerk foreign policy of the government, as well as India’s aggressive water diplomacy, had been destroying livelihoods in Bangladesh.

He said “Bangladesh is a riverine country. Most of the country’s economy depends on rivers.”

He further said “but the wrong policies of the government of the country, the aggression of India’s water policy and the knee-jerk foreign policy of the government are destroying the livelihood of this country by sometimes making it a desert and sometimes by flooding it.”

He added “there used to be 24,000 kilometers of waterways in Bangladesh. It is now down to 4,000 kilometers. After the country’s independence, 158 rivers have dried up due to negligence.”

Rezaul was addressing a mass procession at the North gate of the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in Dhaka.

WASHINGTON, 02 July 2022, (TON): As the United States and the Taliban reengaged in Doha, US officials defended the talks, saying “isolating Kabul’s de facto rulers would not promote US interests in Afghanistan.”

A US State Department official told media “we believe that we can accomplish more in Afghanistan by engaging, rather than isolating the Taliban.”

The official added “this would be “the first in-person engagement with a high-level Taliban representative since the Taliban’s March 23 decision to ban girls from attending secondary schools.”

Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is representing the Taliban in the talks while Special Representa­tive for Afghanistan Thomas West leads the American delegation.

JERUSALEM, 02 July 2022, (TON): Israeli lawmakers dissolved parliament, forcing the country’s fifth election in less than four years, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid set to take over as caretaker prime minister at midnight.

After the unanimous 92-0 vote, the centrist Lapid embraced outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, whose year in charge of an unwieldy, eight-party coalition was ultimately undone by its ideological divisions.

Lapid, whose Hungarian-born father survived the Holocaust, went immediately from parliament to Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial centre.

The 58-year-old said in a statement “there, I promised my late father that I will always keep Israel strong and capable of defending itself and protecting its children.”

MOSCOW, 02 July 2022, (TON): President Vladimir Putin said “Russia has no problem if Finland and Sweden join NATO.”

Putin told a news conference "we don´t have problems with Sweden and Finland like we do with Ukraine,”

The Russian leader continued "we don´t have territorial differences.”

"There is nothing that could bother us about Sweden and Finland joining NATO. If Finland and Sweden wish to, they can join. That´s up to them. They can join whatever they want."

Putin said "if military contingents and military infrastructure were deployed there, we would be obliged to respond symmetrically and raise the same threats for those territories where threats have arisen for us.”

MADRID, 02 July 2022, (TON): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told “Sweden and Finland that he could still block their drives to join NATO if they fail to implement a new accession deal with Ankara.”

Erdogan issued his blunt warning at the end of a NATO summit at which the US-led alliance formally invited the Nordic countries to join the 30-nation bloc.

The two nations dropped their history of military non-alignment and announced plans to join NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Their bids were headed for swift approval until Erdogan voiced concerns in May.

He accused the two of providing a haven for outlawed Kurdish militants and promoting terrorism.