Vice President of the Republic of Maldives Faisal Naseem will arrive in Bangladesh on Monday morning for a three-day official visit to further strengthen cooperation in a number of areas, including connectivity, human resources, trade in fisheries, health, tourism and climate change.
Diplomatic sources said the Vice President of Maldives is coming to Bangladesh at the time when the two countries are making smooth progress in their bilateral relations.
Foreign Ministry officials said Faisal Naseem will be accompanied by two ministers and the foreign secretary.
Apart from connectivity, trade cooperation, a host of issues will be discussed, including employment of Bangladeshi workers in the Maldives, Bangladesh's assistance to Maldives in the field of healthcare, higher education as well as various technical education.
Maldives is the largest labour market for Bangladesh in South Asia. Some 90,000 Bangladeshis work there. Many of them became undocumented and some 10,000 returned home last year.
In another development, the US-Bangla Airlines on November 19 formally launched direct flights to the Maldives. The private airlines will operate flights three times a week for now and planned to raise the number of flights to seven a week.
Dhaka hosted the visit the Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who paid a two-day visit to Bangladesh on March 17-18 this year, to attend the Golden Jubilee celebration of Independence of Bangladesh and Birth Centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Bangladesh has shown interest to enter into a preferential trade agreement (PTA) with the Maldives, within the purview of the WTO provisions. The Maldives side welcomed the proposal and agreed to give positive consideration to the text of the draft PTA shared by Bangladesh.
In February 2021, the Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid also visited Bangladesh
Faisal Naseem is a Maldivian politician who is Vice President of the Maldives, following the election of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on 23 September 2018. He assumed office on 17 November 2018, and succeeded the former Vice President Abdulla Jihad.
