**Bangladesh's relations with Turkey are mutually beneficial and Bangladesh may look forward to some real benefits through this visit. Both countries should see cooperative efforts as catalyst to harness the potential of resources of

Bangladesh and Turkey.

PRIME Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled fly to Turkey on April 9 on a four-day official visit at the invitation of her counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The visit is very important and will open up opportunities of cooperation with Turkey, which

is now the sixth largest economy in Europe and sixteenth in the world.

Straddling the continents of Europe and Asia, Turkey's strategically important location has given it major influence in the region — and control over the entrance to the Black Sea. As a large country with more than 78 million people in the midst of Eurasia's vast landmass, it may be defined as a country with multiple regional identities that cannot be reduced to one unified character.

Turkey cannot be explained geographically or culturally by associating it with one single region. It is a Middle Eastern, Balkan, Caucasian, Central Asian, Caspian, Mediterranean, Gulf, and Black Sea country. Given this picture, Turkey has made itself into a nation which provides security and stability not only for itself, but also for its neighbouring regions.

Since 2002, Turkish foreign policy has been "look to the East," and its proactive foreign policy has turned Turkey into been a major player in the region.

Given the above context, the visit of the Bangladesh prime minister will help to boost bilateral cooperation, among others, in trade, investment, health, culture and connectivity. Turkey has expertise in the construction of airports, deep-sea ports, communication infrastructure, etc.

Bilateral relations are excellent and the people of Bangladesh have deep respect for the founder of modern Turkey Kamal Ataturk, and a main avenue in Dhaka has been named after him and also a school in a rural area in Noakhali.

Almost all the heads of Bangladesh government visited Turkey. In the late '80s, Prime Minister Turgut Ozal visited Bangladesh.

Bilateral trade is growing and joint ventures are being considered. The two countries have already agreed to raise the bilateral trade volume to at least $3 billion by 2015 from the current level of below $1 billion. Bangladesh is now enjoying trade surplus with Turkey, which has a vantage position as gateway to the East (particularly the oil-rich Middle East) and the West.

Turkey has introduced Dhaka-Istanbul direct air flight to achieve the target. Bangladesh-Turkey Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been established to boost bilateral trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.

In early June, 2009, the Bangladesh commerce minister visited Ttirkey and announced that a Ttirkish Special Economic Zone might be located in Iswardi or Mongla. His Turkish counterpart responded positively to Dhaka's offer.

The finance minister visited Turkey in November 2009 to attend the third meeting of the Bangladesh-Turkey Joint Economic Cooperation. The two countries agreed to cooperate in areas of

agriculture, irrigation systems, contracting services, tourism, telecommunication and infrastructure projects.

The two sides explored the possibilities of joint venture in the fields of shipbuilding, heavy machinery industries, electronic appliances, textiles, pharmaceuticals, ready-made garments, jute and jute products and petrochemical products.

President Zillur Rahman of Bangladesh visited Istanbul from November 6, 2009, to attend an QIC summit on economic and commercial cooperation in Istanbul to mark the 25“’ anniversary of the QIC Standing Committee. The president met his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul during the visit.

Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan visited Bangladesh in 2010, and during both countries discussed issues relating to bilateral coopera- tion in many areas, including tourism and infrastructure.

During the visit of the Bangladesh prime minister, Bangladesh reportedly may urge Turkey to construct 500 community clinics in Bangladesh, give prompt registration of Bangladeshi pharmaceutical products in Turkey, and import vaccines from Bangladesh. According to an agreement signed during the Turkish prime minister's visit to Dhaka in 2010, Ankara would fund $11.50 million to construct the community clinics.

It is reported Dhaka may also ask Ankara to: • Provide duty-free market access to its jute and jute goods. Turkey imported jute and jute goods from Bangladesh worth $ 1.7 million in the 2010-11 fiscal year;

• Lift the safeguard duty on Bangladeshi readymade garments (RMG). This duty made Bangladesh suffer the most as it was a leading RMG exporter to Turkey and had been enjoying duty-free access as an LDC before September last year;

• Establish an international vocational training institute in Bangladesh to ensure smooth supply of skilled manpower for the garments, textiles, design and fashion industries of both the countries, maintained the officials; and

• Provide sports equipment for Bangladesh Krira Shiksha Protisthan (BKSP) and training of professional players and coaches in Turkey.

Both the sides have reportedly finalised the signing of an agreement to facilitate foreign direct investment and have been working on securing another deal, under which Turkey will increase its annual credit limit to Bangladesh from $100 million to $250 million.

Turkey and Bangladesh are members of the D-8 Commission. The D-8 Commission has recently identified cooperation in industrialisation and micro-credit, human resource development, industrial and technological data bank work, and designing and production of agriculture aircraft prototypes.

Bangladesh's relations with Turkey are mutually beneficial and Bangladesh may look forward to some real benefits through this visit. Both countries should see cooperative efforts as catalyst to harness the potential of resources of Bangladesh and Turkey.

The writer is a former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.