Bhutan urged to reduce fees for Bangladeshi tourists

Dhaka has urged Thimpu to reduce its Sustainable Development Fees for tourists from Bangladesh at the 3rd Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) between Bangladesh and Bhutan.

Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and his Bhutanese counterpart Pema Choden led their respective side at the FOC held in Thimpu on Friday, a foreign ministrys press release said.

As per Bangladeshs request, the Bhutanese side assured positive consideration for reducing fees for Bangladeshi tourists to enhance tourism and foster people-to-people contact.
During the FOC, the whole gamut of bilateral relations was discussed.

Both the Foreign Secretaries expressed satisfaction with the excellent bilateral relations that exist between Bangladesh and Bhutan.

They discussed all the major issues of mutual interests and agreed to promote cooperation encompassing all sectors, especially trade and commerce, health, investment, connectivity, power and energy, tourism, culture and education among others.

Momen urged Bhutan to take necessary measures to rejoin the BBIN MVA framework to promote prosperity through people-to-people contact.

Both the Secretaries also discussed the means and ways of faster implementation of the decisions taken and MoUs signed during the recent visit of His Majesty the King of Bhutan to Bangladesh.

On her part, Pema Choden stressed on the exploration of the untapped potential in economic, cultural and educational areas and proposed to establish meaningful collaborative relationships. She mentioned that Bhutan would like to pursue more trade and investment cooperation with Bangladesh.

She also stressed mutual efforts to conclude the pending Agreements and MoUs.

Bhutanese Foreign Secretary emphasized the exchange of government and private level visits between the two countries.

Both the Foreign Secretaries discussed regional issues of mutual interest and hoped that both countries would continue to work to reinvigorate the SAARC and BIMSTEC processes.

Bangladesh Foreign Secretary also called on Lyonpo D. N. Dhungyel, Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade, Royal Government of Bhutan at the latters office.

During the meeting, they discussed issues of mutual interest, including trade and investment, the special economic zone in Kurigram, power sector cooperation, cooperation in health and education, and regional cooperation.

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen also attended the National Day Reception hosted by the Bangladesh Embassy in Bhutan as a special guest.

He also inspected the progress of the ongoing construction work of the Chancery and Residence Construction project of the Bangladesh Embassy in Thimphu.