RIYADH: Bangladesh signed an agreement to purchase fertilizer from Saudi Arabia.
The contract was signed between Saudi Arabian SABIC and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), which functions under the Ministry of Industries, to buy 500,000 metric tons of urea fertilizer in 2017 from SABIC.
The accord was signed by Mohammad Iqbal, chairman of BCIC from Bangladesh, and Abdulnasser Ahmed Al-Babtain, general manager of Urea and Nutrients department of SABIC.
Describing it as a major development in the Saudi-Bangladesh bilateral trade, Mohamed Abdul Hasan, economic counselor of the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh, told Arab News that the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries is valued at $1.1 billion.
“We export only goods worth about $250 million, while we import goods for $850 million from the Kingdom,” Hasan said.
The Kingdom exports crude oil, fertilizers and petrochemicals to Dhaka, while it imports garments, fish, leather goods and food items from Bangladesh.
Hasan said that his country is trying to market pharmaceutical products to the Kingdom since it produces quality products from the pharmaceutical sector.
“Currently, we are exporting pharmaceuticals to 90 countries, including the US, from 38 Bangladesh companies,” he said.
Ambassador Golam Moshi said SABIC and BCIC are currently conducting a feasibility study to set up a plant for the production of half million metric tons of Diammonium phosphate (DAP) in the Kingdom, which would be dedicated to Bangladesh. He said that the Kingdom has raw materials such as sulfuric acid, phosphate together with energy to facilitate the smooth operations of the project.
