Staff correspondent:
Civil aviation and tourism minister Muhammad Faruk Khan today  urged Ankara to invest in Bangladesh’s tourism industry, as Turkiye has a longstanding  experience in travel and leisure sector. “Bangladesh ensures the most investment friendly environment in the South Asian region  while our labor cost is more realistic compared to other countries”, he said.   The minister made the call during a meeting with Turkish Ambassador to Bangladesh Ramis Sen at the secretariat, said a press release here. Pointing out that Bangladesh has a huge internal-market with high potentials, the minister assured the ambassador of all assistance for the Turkish businessmen to invest in Bangladesh’s tourism sector. Noting that the relations between Bangladesh and Turkey are historically deep-rooted, Khan  said, it can be transformed into people to people ties with help of the tourism sector.The minister also sought Turkish assistance to train Bangladeshi workforce working in the tourism and leisure sector.  He also recommended that Turkish scholarship awards for Bangladeshi students can be given to study tourism-oriented subjects.In reply, the Turkish envoy assured the minister that his country is ready to share their extensive experiences in the tourism sector with Bangladesh.Sen said he will discuss and encourage Turkish investors to invest in different arena of Bangladesh’s tourism industry.Emphasizing the importance of aviation and tourism for the Bangladesh economy, he said “We want to make our existing ties more tangible in the aviation sector”.   Sen said that he will contact the Turkish institutes to train Bangladesh tourism sector’s employees. “We will highly consider any institutional proposal about training”, he added.Besides, the envoy assured that he will inform the respective authority to consider the Turkish scholarship awards for Bangladeshi students in tourism oriented subjects.