DHAKA: The newly established Jordan-Bangladesh Friendship Association will seek to boost investment and tourism between the two countries, its convenor told Arab News on Sunday.
More than 65,000 Bangladeshis live and work in Jordan, which has been one of the main destinations for the country’s skilled garment workers since 2010, following a government agreement.
The friendship association, comprising diverse members of Bangladeshi and Jordanian society, will initially be based in Amman, where it was formally launched with Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Masud bin Momen and Bangladeshi Ambassador to Jordan Nahida Sobhan among those attending the ceremony.
Omar Armuti, a Jordanian historian who helped organize the Jordan-Bangladesh Friendship Association, said the body “represents the popular effort to strengthen relations” between the two nations.
“We in the Jordanian friendship association with Bangladesh will seek to increase great exchange, investment, and tourism between the two friendly countries,” Armuti told Arab News on Sunday.
The association will work closely with the Bangladeshi Embassy in Jordan to support closer ties between Amman and Dhaka, hoping to play a role in establishing a joint business council, opening a direct flight between the capitals, and encouraging efforts to open a Jordanian embassy in Bangladesh, Armuti said.
“The Jordanian friendship association with Bangladesh will constantly strive to support relations between Jordan and Bangladesh in various fields,” he added.
Armuti also welcomed Momen’s invitation for the association’s members to visit Dhaka and noted that they would soon organize a delegation to make the trip.
In a statement, the Bangladeshi foreign secretary said the association would “complement government efforts to enhance bilateral relations and increase people-to-people contact between Bangladesh and Jordan.”
Sobhan told Arab News that the association would also work to promote wider knowledge of Bangladesh.
“The association will enhance people-to-people contact,” she said. “It will introduce Bangladesh’s development stories to common people in Jordan. One main objective is to increase trade relations between the two countries and tourism.”
Source : Arab News