Oman
Momen pitches for Bangladesh-Oman biz forum to bolster trade ties
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has pitched for the involvement of the business community in both Bangladesh and Oman to expand the scope of bilateral trade and investment.
"We may consider forming a ‘Bangladesh-Oman Business Forum’ to explore and strengthen business cooperation between the two countries," he said.
Dr Momen said that both sides need to facilitate B2B (business to business) interaction and exchange of visits among their business community.
The Foreign Minister was addressing a webinar titled 'Bangladesh-Oman Bilateral Trade & Investment: Challenges and Opportunities' on Monday night to celebrate 'Mujib Year' and the golden jubilee of the Independence of Bangladesh.
Read:Momen bats for joint climate event during COP26
Sheikh Khalifa Alharthy, Under Secretary for Diplomatic Affairs, Foreign Ministry of Oman, and Bangladesh Ambassador to the Gulf state, Mizanur Rahman, also shared their views at the webinar.
As a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member, Oman applies 5 percent customs duty for all countries, including Bangladesh.
"Although Oman individually can not offer any tariff preference to Bangladesh, Muscat can pursue GCC for DFQF market access of some of our products to Oman and the GCC market as well," Dr Momen said.
"I propose that frequent exchange of trade delegations at official and private levels should be encouraged to expand areas of trade and strengthen bilateral trade," he said.
Both Bangladesh and Oman, Dr Momen said, can participate in trade fairs held in each other’s capitals on a regular basis to familiarise with products.
Investment Prospects in Bangladesh
The Foreign Minister said that Bangladesh has prepared the ground for foreign investments with friendly policies and a favourable business environment.
It has put investment regulatory laws in place like Private Investment (Promotion and Protection) Act 1980, which ensures legal protection and non-discriminatory treatment for foreign investors.
As part of its liberal policy regime, Bangladesh offers various incentives like tax holiday, tax exemption and waiver of import duties, capital repatriation, ease of profit, investment opportunities in stock market for foreigners, and other preferential benefits, said the Foreign Minister.
"The government has taken active steps to improve the business climate by enhancing connectivity through infrastructure buildup and improve the ranking of Ease of Doing Business and One-stop Service for foreign investors," Dr Momen said.
The government, he said, has also taken initiatives to establish 100 economic zones in addition to the existing Exclusive Economic Zones, and several high-tech parks for IT industries are underway.
British navy group: Hijackers have left vessel off UAE coast
The hijackers who seized a vessel off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf of Oman left the targeted ship on Wednesday, the British navy reported, without elaborating.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations reported that the incident, which it had described as a “potential hijack” the night before, was now “complete.” It did not provide further details.
Read:British navy group: ‘Potential hijack’ of ship off UAE coast
“The vessel is safe,” the group said, without identifying the ship. Shipping authority Lloyd’s List and maritime intelligence firm Dryad Global both named the hijacked vessel as Panama-flagged asphalt tanker Asphalt Princess. The vessel’s owner, listed as Emirati free zone-based Glory International, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Satellite-tracking data for the Asphalt Princess had showed it gradually heading toward Iranian waters off the port of Jask early Wednesday, according to MarineTraffic.com. Later, however, it stopped and changed course toward Oman, just before the British navy group announced the intruders had left.
It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the attempted ship hijack, which unfolded amid heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran’s tattered 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Over the past few years, commercial shipping in vital Persian Gulf waterways has increasingly been caught in the crosshairs.
Most recently, the U.S., the U.K. and Israel have blamed Iran for a drone attack on an oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire off the coast of Oman that killed two people. The raid marked the first known fatal assault in the shadow war targeting vessels in Mideast waters. Iran has denied involvement.
Apparently responding to Tuesday’s ship seizure, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh described the recent maritime attacks in the Persian Gulf as “completely suspicious.” He denied that Iran played any role.
Read:India to maintain warships in Gulf zone to aid merchant ship
The U.S. military’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet and the British Defense Ministry did not return calls for comment about the reported hijack. The Emirati government did not immediately acknowledge the incident.
Late on Tuesday, as the reported hijack was underway, six oil tankers off the coast of Fujairah announced around the same time via their Automatic Identification System trackers that they were “not under command,” according to MarineTraffic.com. That typically means a vessel has lost power and can no longer steer.
The Gulf of Oman is near the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil passes. Fujairah, on the UAE’s eastern coast, is a main port in the region for ships to take on new oil cargo, pick up supplies or trade out crew.
For the past two years, after then-President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal and imposed crushing sanctions on the country, the waters off Fujairah have seen a series of explosions and hijackings. The U.S. Navy blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers.
In the summer of 2019, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard troops detained a British-flagged tanker, the Stena Impero, near the Strait of Hormuz — a raid that came after Britain seized an Iranian tanker off the coast of Gibraltar on suspicion the ship had been headed to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.
Read:Data recovered as ship with chemicals sinking off Sri Lanka
Last year, an oil tanker sought by the U.S. for allegedly circumventing sanctions on Iran was hijacked off the Emirati coast and later ended up in Iran, though Tehran never acknowledged the incident.
And in January, armed Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops stormed a South Korean tanker and forced the ship to change course and travel to Iran. While Iran claimed it detained the ship over pollution concerns, it appeared to link the seizure to negotiations over billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in South Korean banks.
Bangladesh, Oman keen to expand economic partnership
Bangladesh and Oman have discussed formation of a Joint Business Council as the two countries see "huge potential" for expanding economic partnership.
The two sides at the first ever Foreign Office Consultation (FOC) held virtually on Tuesday also discussed possibilities of investment in High Tech Park and economic zones of Bangladesh.
Read:Pragmatic talks underway over vaccine procurement, coproduction: Ambassador Li
Both sides agreed upon new areas of cooperation which includes maritime affairs, diplomatic academies, think-tanks and start-ups and desalinization.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen led the 12-member Bangladesh delegation including representatives from the Ministry Home Affairs, Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism, Armed Forces Division and Bangladesh Ambassador to Oman.
Undersecretary Sheikh Khalifa Alharthy led the Omani delegation.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen extended special thanks to the Government of the Sultanate of Oman for taking good care of the Bangladesh Community in Oman during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read:Big-B Initiative to bring more investment to Bangladesh: Shahriar
Undersecretary Sheikh Khalifa Alharthy appreciated the contribution of Bangladesh community to the economies of the both the countries.
While appreciating the generosity of Bangladesh for hosting 1.1 million forcefully displaced Rohingya people, he expressed Oman’s unflinching support on Rohingya issue.
Both sides agreed to work closely to address the ongoing challenges that emanated from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The agenda of the consultations focused on the ongoing political relations, economic cooperation, capacity building and training of Bangladeshi workforce, consular issues, and people-to-people contacts.
Read:Korea supports strengthening digital investigation capability of Bangladesh Police
They agreed on the importance of health and food security in the coming days.
Both sides exchanged views on regional and multilateral issues and enhance the close cooperation in the multilateral fora.
Iran’s largest navy ship catches fire, sinks in Gulf of Oman
The largest ship in the Iranian navy caught fire and later sank Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman under unclear circumstances, semiofficial news agencies reported.
The Fars and Tasnim news agencies said efforts failed to save the support ship Kharg, named after the island that serves as the main oil terminal for Iran.
Read: Iran successfully tests domestic coronavirus vaccine on humans
The blaze began around 2:25 a.m. and firefighters tried to contain it, Fars said. The vessel sank near the Iranian port of Jask, some 1,270 kilometers (790 miles) southeast of Tehran on the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf.
Photos circulated on Iranian social media of sailors wearing life jackets evacuating the vessel as a fire burned behind them. State TV and semiofficial news agencies referred to the Kharg as a “training ship.” Fars published video of thick, black smoke rising from the ship early Wednesday morning.
Satellite photos from Planet Labs Inc. analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Kharg off to the west of Jask on Tuesday. Satellites from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that track fires from space detected a blaze at the site of the Jask that started just before the time of the fire reported by Fars.
Read: Iran a key topic as US envoy Blinken meets UK counterpart
The Kharg serves as one of a few vessels in the Iranian navy capable of providing replenishment at sea for its other ships. It also can lift heavy cargo and serve as a launch point for helicopters. The ship, built in Britain and launched in 1977, entered the Iranian navy in 1984 after lengthy negotiations that followed Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian officials offered no cause for the fire aboard the Kharg. However, it comes after a series of mysterious explosions that began in 2019 targeting ships in the Gulf of Oman. The U.S. Navy later accused Iran of targeting the ships with limpet mines, timed explosives typically attached by divers to a vessel’s hull.
Read: US Navy fires warning shots in new tense encounter with Iran
Iran denied targeting the vessels, though U.S. Navy footage showed members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard removing one unexploded limpet mine from a vessel. The incidents came amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
The sinking of the Kharg marks the latest naval disaster for Iran. In 2020 during an Iranian military training exercise, a missile mistakenly struck a naval vessel near the port of Jask, killing19 sailors and wounding 15. Also in 2018, an Iranian navy destroyer sank in the Caspian Sea.
How Cyclone Yaas was named
As Bangladesh, along with West Bengal and Odhisa, braces for Cyclone Yaas here is how the cyclone was named so, how and why.
The cyclone names are given by countries in the region on a rotation basis.
The name ‘Yaas’, has been given by Oman, in accordance with a standard procedure.
The word Yaas is believed to have originated from the Persian language and it means Jasmin in English.
Read:Cyclone Yaas: Maritime ports in Bangladesh asked to hoist signal No 2
The practice of naming tropical cyclones started years ago. The countries in the Northern Indian Ocean region began it in 2000. The names are listed alphabetically country-wise, and are neutral gender wise, according to an article in public.wmo.int.
In the Atlantic and in the Southern hemisphere (Indian ocean and South Pacific), tropical cyclones receive names in alphabetical order, and women and men’s names are alternated.
It was done for quick identification of the cyclones in weather warning messages. It is also said to be easier for the media to use it in reports. Such names also increases community interest and helps better preparedness, said the article.
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