ASEAN Regional Forum membership
Manila to back Dhaka
UNB, Dhaka
The Philippines will extend support to Bangladesh in its bid to become member of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). The newly appointed Ambassador of the Philippines in Dhaka Jose Lino B Guerrero said this when he made a courtesy call on Prime Minister Khaleda Zia at her office yesterday. Earlier, some other ASEAN countries also expressed their support to Bangladesh in this regard. The Philippines envoy assured the prime minister that his country would take an initiative to translate the existing friendly relations between Dhaka and Manila into tangible cooperation. Guerrero thanked Khaleda for Bangladesh's support to the democratic process of the Philippines. He also conveyed the thanks of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in this regard to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. The Ambassador recalled that the Philippines is one of the first few countries that had recognised Bangladesh as an independent nation in February 1972. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia called for narrowing the trade gap and expanding trade volume between the two countries. Presently, the balance of trade has been in favour of Manila. Responding to her, the envoy stressed the need for reactivating the Bangladesh-Philippines Business Forum formed in 1995. He said the Philippines is interested to invest in ICT, and agro-based and other industries in Bangladesh as well as to increase technical cooperation for resource development between the two countries. Both sides agreed to work on climate and environment areas. The ambassador mentioned that Bangladesh worked in close cooperation with the Philippines in various multilateral and regional forums. The Prime Minister assured that the cooperation would continue in the days ahead. Ambassador Guerrero appreciated the leadership quality of Khaleda and mentioned various pragmatic steps and innovative programmes taken up by her government in various sectors including women education, poverty alleviation, micro-credit and employment generation. Khaleda conveyed her best wishes to Philippines President Gloria Macapagal through the envoy. She also assured the ambassador of her fullest cooperation to help him in his mission in Bangladesh.
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