Commerce Secretary Ataur Rahman Khan on Tuesday called for diversifying products and markets, retaining existing markets, exploring new ones, and strengthening the activities of Bangladesh's trade missions abroad to sustainably boost the country's export earnings.

Commerce Secretary made the call while addressing ministry officials at a review meeting on "Export Diversification, Expansion and Review of Export Earnings for FY2025-26" held at the Commerce Ministry conference room in the afternoon.

As part of the export earnings review, he said the ministry would now regularly review a comparative picture of export targets and achievements over the past five years, month-wise export progress, product, service and sector-based export performance, and the export activities of various foreign missions.

He underscored the need to identify promising sectors, remove existing barriers, provide necessary incentives, protect existing markets, and explore new markets, including for halal products, to achieve export diversification and expansion.

The meeting also discussed swift settlement of trade complaints, removal of existing problems in export transportation, and effective implementation of existing trade agreements.

To make Bangladesh's trade missions abroad more effective, the commerce secretary issued necessary directives on regularly reviewing mission-based reports, exploring new products and markets, strengthening business-to-business (B2B) matchmaking activities among traders, settling trade complaints, and assessing the potential for signing new trade agreements.

The meeting reviewed statistics on trade fairs held at home and abroad over the past three years, their effectiveness based on export purchase orders, and the progress of Bangladesh's participation in the World Expo.

Participants discussed necessary follow-up steps after analysing the relevant reports received. The meeting expressed optimism that its findings would play a positive role in setting this year's export target.

Additional Secretary (FTA) of the Commerce Ministry Ayesha Akther, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Vice-Chairman Mohammad Hasan Arif, and joint secretaries of the Commerce Ministry were present at the meeting.