India offered 1 billion US $ line of credit to Bangladesh for trade & infra development

India on 13 March 2014 offered 1 billion US dollar line of credit to Bangladesh for development of trade facilities and infrastructure. India made the offer at a 2-days meet of the Joint Working Group on Trade held in Dhaka.

Apart from the line of credit, India has also offered to supply another 500 megawatts of power to the country on completion of the required infrastructure.

During the meet, the officials of both the countries discussed ways to boost trade between the two countries by removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers. The two sides also discussed another issues including resumption of coastal shipping services, India-Bangladesh Container Train Service and finalisation of Cooperation Agreement between Bureau of Indian Standards and Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institutions.

This credit has been offered four after years after India gave a credit of the same amount to a neighboring country.

Background
India (New Delhi) and Bangladesh (Dhaka) in August 2010 signed an agreement of 1 billion US dollar with the Indian EXIM Bank to finance 14 infrastructure projects of Bangladesh of which main would be of communication sector. As per the deal the two sides decided to keep the financial support amount as soft loan.  

Earlier, India in November 2011 announced duty-free access of all Bangladeshi products to the market, except 25 alcoholic and drug items.