"Bangladesh that performed poorly at the Hong Kong Ministerial must now build up its negotiation capacity and draw its strategies with strong backing from all stakeholders and approval from the top decision makers and the parliament; to makeup for the past losses during the final phase of Doha Round in the coming months," ICC-Bangladesh said in an editorial note of its latest quarterly news bulletin.

The editorial said a total of 149 trade ministers will meet again between April and July 2006 to resolve what has been swept under the carpet temporarily and meet the deadline for completing the much-talked-about Doha Development Round (DDA).

"But achieving these objective will not be easy either. There will be lots of 'ifs' and 'buts' from the conflicting interest groups when negotiations reach their crucial stage," it added.

The chamber advised the government to establish a separate division under the Ministry of Commerce headed by a secretary to deal with the foreign trade issues.

It suggested more support and additional resources for strengthening the WTO cell and Bangladesh Mission in Geneva.

The ICC-B also suggested activating the Bangladesh Foreign Trade Institute (BFTI), the first-ever public-private collaboration institution, as a think-tank to deal with trade related issues.

The editorial note said many least developed countries (LDCs) are still suspicious about the move of the developed nations. They fear that the developed nations would now penetrate into the markets of poor nations in a big way to sell their goods and services while conceding little on key subsidies and access to their own market.