Taxation avoidance deal encourages Dutch businesses in Bangladesh: FS

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen on Monday said the signing of a new generation avoidance of double taxation treaty between Bangladesh and the Netherlands in March should encourage Dutch businesses to have stronger footprints in Bangladesh for mutual benefit.

He made the remark while the Netherlands Ambassador to Bangladesh, Irma van Dueren, paid her maiden courtesy call on him at the foreign ministry in Dhaka.

At the meeting, both the Foreign Secretary and the Dutch envoy expressed satisfaction at the excellent bilateral relations between the two friendly countries that have developed over the years and expressed their intention to elevate them to the next level.

Recalling the recent fruitful bilateral meeting between Bangladesh and Dutch Premiers in February on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference 2024, Masud said the meetings between the two leaders on different occasions have created a solid platform to elevate the bilateral relationship to a strategic level.

The Dutch Ambassador apprised the Foreign Secretary of a possible visit by the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation to Bangladesh in early July this year to further strengthen Bangladesh-Netherlands trade and investment ties, particularly in the areas of water and maritime, agriculture, and IT.

The foreign secretary suggested expanding bilateral cooperation in the climate change domain.

Thanking the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs for offering scholarships to junior diplomats of Bangladesh for their training at the Netherlands’ acclaimed Clingendael Institute, Masud underscored the need for more cooperation between the Foreign Service Academy of Bangladesh and the Clingendael Institute of the Netherlands.

He also suggested exploring cooperation between the two friendly countries in the field of sports.

The Foreign Secretary thanked the Dutch government for its continued humanitarian assistance to the forcibly displaced Rohingyas in Bangladesh as well as the Netherlands’s support for the Rohingya case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.