<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Bangladesh and France have reiterated interest in expanding bilateral trade and exploring potentials for investment in quality and resilient infrastructure development in Bangladesh, including in the railway sector.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron expressed the hope that the Bangladesh-France Investment Summit — to be held on October 23 and 25, 2023 — in Paris and Toulouse would inject a new impetus to the bilateral trade and investment relations.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Thank you, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and the people of Bangladesh for such a warm welcome. Our friendship is long-standing and unbreakable," President Macron said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">France expressed its confidence in the economic prospects offered by Bangladesh for shared growth and inclusive development.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Both sides recalled the depth of their economic partnership, spanning every sector from industry to services, and expressed willingness to further deepen and widen it through business-to-business collaboration, according to a joint statement issued on Monday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">France lauded the adoption of the National Action Plan on the labour sector of Bangladesh (2021-2026) and stressed the importance of its implementation and the diversification of Bangladesh’s economy in order to facilitate a smooth and sustainable transition under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) of the European Union.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Building on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to France in November 2021, at her invitation, President Emmanuel Macron paid a bilateral visit to Bangladesh on September 10-11, 2023.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The President of France and the Prime Minister of Bangladesh met on Monday in Dhaka to give a strong impetus to the bilateral relations, and stated their common conviction to develop a trusted and meaningful partnership fostering strategic autonomy — in support of global peace and security, resilience and prosperity, and people-centric connectivity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bangladesh and France committed to launch regular high-level dialogues to deepen the strategic dimension of their partnership. UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>