The first Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting between Bangladesh and India was held in Dhaka on Thursday for cooperation in the textiles sector. During the meeting India has agreed to provide technical cooperation for improving Bangladeshi textile and jute sectors.

The meeting was led by Shamsul Kibria, joint secretary of the ministry of textiles and jute along with 17-member Bangladeshi delegation while six member Indian team was led by Sujit Gulati, joint secretary of the Indian textiles ministry.

The meeting discussed different issues including import of raw cotton from India and agreed to continue with functioning of the International Jute Study Group (IJSG), established under the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), but modality is yet to be finalized. The term of which will be expiring on April 26 this year.

Feroz Ahmed, secretary general of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), said that the BTMA members under a special arrangement to avoid any unwanted situation in future had shown interest to import 2.0 million bales of raw cotton from India. To which the Indian government earlier promised to supply up to 2.0 million bales of raw cotton to Bangladesh in the 2013-14 cotton season, starting in October, even if a ban was imposed on such commodity export.

The commerce ministries of both the countries are now working on the contention relating to the raw cotton import from India.

The next JWG meeting is planned at the end of this calendar year in New Delhi.