Honorable Home Minister, His Excellency, Mr. Asaduzzaman Khan;

Honorable State Minister of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Mr. Md Shahriar Alam; 

Friends from the media;

And my dear friends from different parts of Bangladesh who have come to this Eid Visa Camp; 

Let me begin by wishing you on the eve of the Holy Month of Ramadan!

Today is a very special day. On the occasion of this auspicious festival, we are starting the first visa camp of its kind in the history of our bilateral relationship.  This is also the first public event we have held at our new High Commission complex.

The very fact that the High Commission of India has undertaken such an initiative shows the attention that visa occupies in our relationship and the magnitude of our visa operations in your country. The High Commission of India issues the largest number of visas as compared to any other Indian Mission anywhere in world.

This is because ours is a unique relationship. We share the longest border of more than 4096 kilometers. Last year more than one million persons from Bangladesh went to India. And this number is increasing every year. The second largest number of tourists came to India from Bangladesh in 2015.

Every day I meet people in Bangladesh who like to visit India for purposes of tourism, shopping, watching films, medical treatment and for meeting friends and relatives. 

This is a positive sign of the growing engagement between our two countries.  It is also a manifestation of the liberalized visa regime between the two countries, especially since the Revised Travel Arrangements of 2013.

It is always our endeavor to ease this movement of people. We have taken this initiative for the first time as we know that people in Bangladesh would love to travel to India during the Eid holidays. We want India to be your most preferred destination because we are your closest neighbours and friends.

Many of you will be coming from outside of Dhaka-from Khulna, Barisal, Mymensingh to this Camp. Today there are 11 Visa application centers all over Bangladesh, the largest number of Indian visa centers in any one country. The demand for Indian visa is so high- that it keeps us working round the clock to deliver.

Although this camp is for Tourist visas, India gets the highest number of medical patients from Bangladesh amongst all the other countries. Last year more than 1 lakh medical visas were issued in Bangladesh. Business between both countries is also increasing and more and more Indian companies are coming to Bangladesh upbeat about opportunities and Bangladesh companies are going to India.

This is a small start.  You will see many other initiatives from us as we continue to make efforts to facilitate the ease of travel of visitors from Bangladesh to India.

Dhaka

4 June 2016

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