Japan yesterday expressed its intent to further relax the rules of origin for Bangladeshi knitwear exports to the Asian giant.

Rules of origin are the criteria used to determine the national source of a product to identify the goods that qualify for lower or nil customs duty.

The modalities and other formalities in this regard are being worked out, said the foreign ministry yesterday following a high-level meeting between the two countries in Dhaka.

Foreign Secretary Md. Shahidul Haque and Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama led their respective delegations at the meeting.

Also at the meeting, the Japanese delegation said that its government has preliminarily decided to provide official development assistance to build a dedicated rail bridge over the Jamuna river, parallel to the Bangabandhu Bridge.

“Tokyo reaffirms its commitment to further strengthen its bilateral relationship with Bangladesh based on the 'comprehensive partnership' agreed upon between the two prime ministers last year,” Sugiyama said after the meeting.

Haque told reporters that the Japanese side is happy as the government has finalised the land for setting up the special economic zone for Japan.

At the meeting, Bangladesh also proposed that a joint working group be formed to further enhance agricultural cooperation between the two countries. The Japanese side agreed to look into it and requested for concept paper.

The country also sought Japan's technical and financial support to establish a “National Disaster Management Training Centre”.

Bangladesh reiterated its request to Japanese government to recruit skilled workers from the country for construction work of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.