Maldives to allow duty-free market access

The Maldives will allow duty-free access of Bangladeshi products, including medicine, from the end of this year and has agreed to import a large number of qualified manpower from Bangladesh.

The decision to withdraw all import duties on Bangladeshi products was announced by visiting Maldivian Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem during bilateral talks with his counterpart Dipu Moni at the foreign ministry on Sunday.

At the talks, the Maldives also agreed to improve trade and investment cooperation with Bangladesh and sought Dhaka's cooperation in various fields, including health, education and judiciary.

The talk was followed by signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on "Placement of Bangladeshi Workers", a framework agreement signed by the two foreign ministers, which will facilitate Bangladeshi workers in Maldives to send their remittance, establish rights.

The MoU will also allow recruitment of more Bangladeshi workers -- skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled.

Presently, the Maldives authorities registered 12,000 out of 17,000 Bangladeshi workers and its labor ministry is working on documenting the remaining workers.

Speaking at a joint press conference at the foreign ministry in the evening, Ahmed Naseem said his country would recruit a lot of more skilled workforce from Bangladesh including doctors and nurses.

Earlier, Bangladesh Foreign Dipu Moni said both the sides identified the areas of cooperation. She said the Maldives decided to withdraw all duties from Bangladeshi products including medicines.

The Maldivian minister arrived in Dhaka on Saturday on a four-day visit.