First African-Asian Cotton B2B Meeting event as part of Cotton Development and Partnership programme being organized in Bangladesh by the International Islamic Trade Financing Corporation (ITFC), member of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group emphasizing on the development of the Bangladesh textile industry.

Bangladesh textile industry is the source of employment and export earnings for its economy. Currently, Bangladesh is the largest cotton importing country in the world.

Bangladesh finance minister AMA Muhith who inaugurated the programme said that demand for cotton in the local textile sector to stay as RMG will lead their export sector for another twenty to twenty five years. Bangladesh spends more than $3 billion to import cotton a year of which more than half of it comes from India.

The meeting witnessed the attendance of West African cotton producers, the African Cotton Association, the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association, the Bangladesh Cotton Association, and Bengali Spinning/Textile Mills.

This meeting opened doors to their cotton importers to build new opportunities with the African suppliers. With the current challenging economic environment and the increasing competition, ITFC had given them the chance to reach out to new destinations.

The meetings focused on the longstanding and strategic partnership between ITFC and the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh, especially in supporting Bangladesh’s energy sector in addition to the opportunities in supporting the agricultural sector.

ITFC, as the trade finance and trade development arm of the IDB Group, brings businessmen together from its member countries and provide them with the platform as such today to develop new business partnership to benefit from direct trade linkages between cotton exporting countries and Bangladeshi textile industry.

ITFC was able to bridge between the Asian countries, specifically Bangladesh and Indonesia, to reach out and develop new business partnerships with African cotton suppliers.

Eng. Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO ITFC expressed his special thanks to the President of African Cotton Association, Baba Berthe and CEOs, representatives of West African Cotton Ginning companies for being part of this B2B Meeting, which ITFC is co-hosting with the Bangladesh Textile Mill Association and Bangladesh Cotton Association. The event took place on Monday in the Westin Hotel, Dhaka.