Bangladesh, Nigeria to sign pact on foreign office consolidation -Ambassador

By Albert Akota

Bangladesh and Nigeria are currently working to sign an agreement on Foreign Office Consolidation (FOC), to provide a platform to discuss enhanced cooperation and to explore new areas of cooperation between the two countries.
This was disclosed in Abuja by the Bangladeshi High Commissioner, Md. Shameem Ahsan, in a meeting with Journalists , noted that the country has signed FOC with close to 40 countries around the world including few countries in Africa.
Md. Ahsan stated also that Bangladesh and Nigeria are currently working to sign some agreements and Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation in the field of culture, education and defence.
According to him, “Bangladesh and Nigeria are two friendly countries bound by commonalities in many respects and are both developing countries. Nigeria is very special and there are huge potentials of strengthening bilateral relations between the two countries.”
Speaking further, he said that Bangladesh will be more than happy to collaborate with Nigeria in respect to her textile and garment industry.
“As the second largest producers of garment in the world after China, there are huge demands of textile and garment in Nigeria and many Nigerian officials have requested the technical and managerial support of Bangladesh to revive the textile industry of Nigeria.
“I am sure Nigeria had a glorious past in respect to her textile industry but now it needs new focus to bring it to its past glory.
“Nigeria being the largest economy in Africa and 6th largest producers of oil in the world is something amazing, but I think there are many things both countries can do to cooperate. We can share our best practices in many respects,” he remarked.
He also revealed that following talks between Bangladesh and Nigeria’s Foreign ministry, Nigeria will soon open a resident mission in Dakar, Bangladesh, to further solidify the bilateral relations between the two countries.