Ministry of Commerce, Government of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh organized a workshop on Market Access and Market Analysis Tools” in association with Job Opportunities & Business Support (JOBS) a project funded by USAID/ Bangladesh and implemented by the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland. The workshop is being conducted by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Trade Centre (ITC), two Geneva-based UN agencies during September 4-8, 2004 in Dhaka.

ITC will be presenting “TradeMap” a very pragmatic web-based application used extensively throughout the world for international market research and trade analysis. Mr Stephan Blanc and Ms. Helen Lassen Senior Market Analysts at ITC will be introducing the TradeMap for market analysts and international marketers researching international trade flows and tracking market developments & Market Access Map, the soon to be launched web-based database on market access barriers to the participants.  

Mr Hiroaki Kuwahara, UNCTAD’s Chief of the Trade Information Section / Trade Analysis Branch, will also be running a two-day hands-on workshop on 7 and 8 September presenting the Trade Analysis and Information System (TRAINS) as well as the Agricultural Trade Policy Simulation Model (ATPSM). TRAINS , also a very powerful tool, is an information system intended to increase transparency in international trading conditions. It is designed more specifically for use by policy makers and economic operators engaged in exporting. With its multiple functionality including a tariff change simulation model, can be used in trade negotiations and for general research on international trade. TRAINS contained, as of May 2004, tariff schedules and import statistics at 6-digit of Harmonized System for 148 countries (counting EU as a single entity), 51 of which with para-tariff measures, 95 with non-tariff measures and 70 with imports statistics at tariff-line level. 

Mr. Md. Aminur Rahman, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce was the Chief Guest in the opening ceremony of the workshop. Mr. Rahman, in his inaugural speech, pointed out the importance of these tools as Bangladesh faces the post-MFA (Multi-Fiber Agreement) era.  He thanked the two Senior Market Analysts from Geneva for conducting a series of workshops on market access and market analysis tools now available to Bangladesh’s market analysts, trade negotiators and all economic operators engaged in exporting.  

Mr. McDonald Homer of the USAID/Bangladesh Office of Economic Growth, Food and Environment in his comments appreciated the multi-donor partnership initiative, which he believes will help the government and business community work together in contributing to the overall economic development of Bangladesh. 

In his welcome address, Mr. Imran Shauket, Country Director JOBS/IRIS Bangladesh, informed the audience that JOBS was the first project in Bangladesh to receive the ITC training and immediately recognised the value of these tools for Bangladesh.  JOBS played a key role in the official launch of the TradeMap USAID program in Bangladesh, held in March of this year and followed by a two-day workshop run by ITC on “Using Web-based Tools to Support Strategic Market Analysis for International Market Development.”  

Bangladesh is the first country in Asia to benefit from this program, which started in 2003 in El Salvador and it was made possible due to the excellent working relationship that USAID, JOBS & ITC share.  Twenty nine participants from government bodies, donor agencies, chambers, educational institutions and different organizations are taking part in this workshop. Certificates will be distributed among the participants at the end of the workshop.