Business Organizations in Bangladesh                                      July 2008

The Dutch Bangla Chamber of Commerce and Industries (DBCCI) located in Dhaka (www.dbcci.org) is a bilateral chamber with formal and constitutional approval of the Government of Bangladesh. Currently DBCCI has approximately 90 member companies registered. The main objectives of DBCCI are to service businessmen interested in bilateral trade and investment between Bangladesh and the Netherlands.

There is also a bilateral chamber located in Groningen, the Bangladesh-Dutch Chamber of Commerce (DBCC). The DBCC (www.dbcc.eu) is directly related to the Bangladesh-British Chamber of Commerce in London and Dhaka. The DBCC sees ample opportunities of investing in Bangladesh, both for small and big companies and in various sectors. The DBCC offers interested businessmen a wealth of information and matchmaking with parties in Bangladesh.In addition to the two bilateral chambers, the following chambers and business associations can assist (potential) Dutch traders and investors with relevant (sectoral / regional) business information.

www.bgmea.com: BGMEA – Bangladesh Garments Manufacturing Export Association – was established in 1977. BGMEA is the apex body of 3500 garment manufacturers and exporters, with the objective of ensuring a healthy business environment for mutually beneficial relationship among manufacturers, exporters and importers contributing to largest foreign exchange inflow from this sector. It has a broad range of activities to protect, promote and facilitate growth of this sector. It supports its members in all possible activities, maintaining relevant contact data base, organizing trade fairs, ensuring compliance issues, carrying out research and policy advocacy to the government.

www.bkmea.com: BKMEA – Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturing Export Association – is an association of 1050 knitwear manufacturers and exporters. It has an extensive global network, primarily with its two major export destinations, Europe and USA. Its services are product and market promotion, social compliance, research and development, productivity improvement, arbitration, etc. It has a section on business opportunities on its website which may be interesting for traders/investors.

www.ficci.org.bd: FICCI – Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industries – comprises of foreign companies having (at least 50% equity capital is foreign owned). Its tasks are to promote and protect the interests of its members, to render advice to the government of Bangladesh and its related agencies/authorities towards promotion of commerce, trade and industry of the country vis-à-vis the interest of foreign investors in general and those of the FICCI members in particular. FICCI maintains communication with the International Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Paris, International Trade Centre (ITC), Geneva and the World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva. The Chamber comprises of approximately 140 member companies representing a wide range of different industries, trading houses, service companies, banks and financial institutions.

www.dhakachamber.com: DCCI – Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries – has as a basic function the promotion and development of trade, commerce and industry with a focus to SME (small and medium enterprises). It prepares economic policy papers, organizes training courses, workshops, trade fairs, ad gives inputs to government policies relevant to import, export, investment, banking, insurance, annual budgets, etc and briefs on international and regional trade arrangements WTO, SAFTA, BIMSTEC, etc.

www.chittagongchamber.com: CCCI – Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industries – is the pioneer Chamber in the country consisting of firms, companies, and corporate bodies engaged in trade and commerce in Chittagong, but also to protect and promote the trade, commerce and industry of Bangladesh in general.