The accord will be signed on November 2 in the Chinese capital along with approving Beijing's accession to the business bloc.

The existing Bangkok Agreement will be formally transformed into Apta.

This is going to be a turning point as China is joining the bloc, Altaf told the news agency yesterday.

"For the first time, Dhaka will be getting concessionary trade access, both duty free and quota free, at different levels under the new Apta arrangement to countries like China or South Korea," he added.

The Beijing meet will also discuss the rules of origin issue for products to be traded under concessionary regime among the member states and Bangladesh will get advantage from this, he hoped.

This will also be the first ever ministerial meeting of the Bangkok Agreement bloc. Previously all such meetings were at the expert level, Altaf said.

The commerce minister said the Beijing meeting will not only seal the transformation of the Bangkok Agreement to Apta but may also take decision in favour of inclusion of some new members to enlarge the economic and business cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

Pakistan, Iran, Nepal, Myanmar, Vietnam and Fiji are aspirants to join the Apta, he said adding that the enlarged bloc may ultimately end up in creating an exclusive region for accelerated economic development and a free trade zone.

Altaf said the move to enlarge the Bangkok Agreement and put it under a new flagship - Apta, has come at a time when the Asia-Pacific region is gaining a new growth momentum.

The Bangkok Agreement, a United Nations-focused drive, was signed in 1975 with Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, South Korea and Laos as the core members.

Explaining some of the business gains, he said South Korea has agreed to offer duty free access for 129 items, and 291 items will enjoy different concessional rates. Sri Lanka has agreed to offer 48 items at 35 percent duty, 10 percent down from the existing rates.

China is offering duty free access for 83 items and 50 percent duty for 25 more items.

Once the accession issue of new members is sorted out, he said, the business outreach of the bloc will become quite large and so also its economic and business gains.