DHAKA: Spain Foreign Minister José Manuel García-Margallo on Wednesday assured that his country would hold an event in 2014 to find out investment opportunities in Bangladesh’s rail sector.

The assurance came after his Bangladesh counterpart AH Mahmood Ali urged Manuel to explore the development of Bangladesh’s rail sector.

The two ministers had a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 17th NAM Ministerial Meeting being held in the Algerian capital Algiers on May 28 to May 29.

At the meeting, Manual confirmed arranging an event sometimes in 2014 to promote investment opportunities in Bangladesh, under the auspices of Casa Asia.

The two Ministers also agreed to work towards finalizing the bilateral agreements currently under consideration on avoidance of double taxation and cultural cooperation.

The Spanish minister also stressed for enhancing bilateral relations between the countries and his country want to engage more in this regard said a ministry release.

Manuel said, “Bangladesh and Spain must work together to further energize the current momentum of bilateral relations. There is much that Spain has recently committed to do in Bangladesh, and there is still more we would like to do”, 

The ministers also underscored the need for further diversifying trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.

Ali invited his counterpart to visit Bangladesh, which Manuel accepted and assured of the visit at his convenient time to sign these agreements.

Nepal

The foreign minister also held another bilateral meeting with his Nepalese counterpart Mahendra Bahadur Pandey.

They expressed satisfaction at the ongoing momentum of sub-regional cooperation, and stressed the need for further intensifying these efforts for mutual benefit.

Ali thanked Nepal for offering to host the next SAARC Summit in November 2014. 

The two ministers agreed to further activate the process of Foreign Office consultations to exchange views on the entire scale of bilateral relations on a periodic basis.

Fiji

Mahmood Ali also had a meeting with his Fijian counterpart Ratu Inoke Kubuabola.

Ali sought Fiji’s support in further expanding Bangladesh’s relations with the Pacific Island countries to promote issues of common interest.

The minister offered to provide enhanced defence training to Fiji, and invited Fiji to explore the possibility of importing high-quality pharmaceutical products from Bangladesh.

United Nations (UN)

The minister also called on UN Chef de Cabinet Susana Malcorra, who represented the UN Secretary General at the NAM Ministerial Meeting, on the sidelines.

At the meeting, Susana praised Bangladesh’s contribution to UN peacekeeping, reaffirming UN’s continues cooperation with Bangladesh to advance the country’s sustained development efforts.

Ali flew to Algiers on Tuesday from Japanese capital Tokyo to attend this annual meeting of NAM members’ Foreign Ministers.

Bangladesh Ambassador and Permanent Representative to United Nations AKM Abdul Momen is giving company to Ali there.

BDST: 0946 HRS MAY 29, 2014