Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are set to sign a free trade accord next year to boost trade and pave the way for a huge-cross border trans-shipment via the port of Colombo. “The Shipping Ministry of Bangladesh is also cooperating in this. We decided to use Colombo port in our future trans-shipments as we feel other regional ports to be expensive." said Bangladesh's Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed. Total bilateral trade between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which stood at $48 million in 2010, has grown to $131 million by 2015.

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