Bangladesh has a strong track record of growth and development, even in times of elevated global uncertainty. A robust demographic dividend, strong ready-made garment (RMG) exports, resilient remittance inflows, and stable macroeconomic conditions have supported rapid economic growth over the past two decades. A strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continued in FY22, although a recent surge in commodity prices has presented new headwinds. Bangladesh is also a remarkable story of poverty reduction and development. It is on track to graduate from the UN’s Least Developed Countries (LDC) list in 2026.
Bangladesh is India’s biggest trade partner in South Asia. India’s exports to Bangladesh for financial year 2021-22 stood at US 16.2 billion USD and imports from Bangladesh for the same period stood at US 2.0 Billion USD. During 2021-22India’s engineering exports reached USD 2.9 billion, while engineering imports from Bangladesh recorded at USD 0.3 billion. So India enjoys a trade surplus with Bangladesh in merchandise as well as in engineering goods. In case of pharmaceutical machinery, medical equipment & services which is the focus product of the Asia Pharma exhibition, India’s exports to Bangladesh is USD 26.0 million during 2021-22.
India - one of the strongest pharma-economy across the world has emerged as single point resource for Pharma Machineries and Engineering Equipments in the world pharma markets. Looking to the role played by the Indian pharmaceutical industry in global markets, India is slowly turning in to a ‘Pharma Capital’ of the world. The regulatory standards are meeting the high level parameters ensuring very high quality pharma production meeting the international regulations. India meets 8.2% of Bangladesh’s import of pharma machineries as on 2020. Thus there lies a huge untapped market for India, which is yet to be explored. India needs to work more and intensify its trading agreement with Bangladesh. Thus India should find out opportunities to negotiate more trade deals with Bangladesh to increase its market share.