Dhaka: The government wants to bolster its efforts to brand Bangladesh globally by highlighting the country's areas of strength in an effort to make it a more attractive destination for trade and investment. For this purpose, it urged stronger team work within the government.

An inter-ministerial meeting of the committee on "Branding Bangladesh Abroad" was held at the foreign ministry on January 23 highlighting the preparation, planning, implementation, and monitoring of possible challenges of Bangladesh in the context of graduation from the list of Least Developed Countries (LDC).

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen, Prime Minister's Private Industry and Investment Adviser Salman F Rahman, and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen attended the meeting, among others.

Momen put emphasis on identifying areas of strength that Bangladesh has both as a nation and as a sovereign state. He asked for stronger coordination amongst the stakeholders for projecting them abroad.

He further highlighted the need for "open, inclusive and fact-based programmes" for projecting a correct and aspirational image of the country.

Foreign Secretary Masud Momen noted, "To create a strong brand of Bangladesh, we're working on various soft power pillars -- business and trade, governance, institutional relations, culture and heritage, media and communication, education and science, people and values, familiarity, reputation and influence."

Officials from foreign ministry, various government agencies, Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Commerce, ICT Division, Economic Relations Division, Bangladesh Tourism Board, BEZA, BEPZA, BIDA, Public-Private Partnership Authority, BISCIC, attended the meeting. Representatives from trade bodies such as DCCI, BGMEA, and FBCCI were also present.

It was decided at the meeting that a common branding platform would be set up upon which all government and non-government organisations of the country could find complementary support systems for branding Bangladesh from their respective fields.