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PM flies to Japan today

Focus on trade, investment

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Prime Minister (PM) Khaleda Zia flies to Tokyo today on a four-day high-profile visit to hold talks with Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi to further promote trade, investment and economic ties.
"This visit has great potentials and we think this is going to be an watershed in our bilateral ties," Foreign Secretary Hemayetuddin told reporters yesterday.
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Khaleda, who will hold official talks with her Japanese counterpart, will seek duty free access of Bangladeshi products to reduce trade deficit, more Japanese investment, and financial support to the proposed Padma Bridge.
Hemayetuddin said the two-way trade heavily favours Japan as Bangladesh's import from Japan was $532 million in 2003-04 while its export to Japan was $118 million only.
Hemayetuddin said the Khaleda-Koizumi talks on July 14 will also encompass regional and international issues, including the proposed United Nations (UN) reforms.
Japan's Press Secretary for Foreign Affairs Hatsuhisa Takashima at a briefing in Tokyo on July 8 said Koizumi will seek Bangladesh's support for the draft resolution on the UN Security Council reforms and look into the possibility of Bangladesh's cosponsoring of this resolution.
The talks between the two premiers will be followed by an "exclusive meeting" between Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan and Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimuri on July 15.
During her four-day (July 12-15) official visit, Khaleda will have an audience with Emperor Akihito at the Imperial Palace on July 15. She will be a keynote speaker at a seminar on "Investment Opportunity in Bangladesh" on July 14.
Hemayetuddin said Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO) in its study has already identified Bangladesh as one of top 15 countries for attractive destina-
tion of investment.
A select group of Japanese businessmen as well as heads of JETRO and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will call on the prime minister.
During the visit, the two sides will sign a Record of Discussions making way for training of Bangladeshi workers in as many as 60 different types of small and medium scale industries for a period of one to three years.
In the development of human resources sector, Japan has so far granted scholarships to 5,000 Bangladeshi students, Hemayetuddin said.
One major itinerary of the PM includes laying the foundation stone of a permanent Shaheed Minar in the centre of Tokyo city in memory of the martyrs of historic Language Movement of 1952.
The PM's official entourage includes Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan, State Minister for Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Major (retd) Quamrul Islam, Deputy Minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Moni Swapan Dewan, and Advisor to the energy ministry and Executive Chairman of Board of Investment (BoI) Mahmudur Rahman.
Mahmudur Rahman will lead a 24-member official business delegation while Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Investment (FBCCI) President Abdul Awal Mintoo will lead another 50-member business delegation.
The PM will return on July 15.