Developed by International Trade Center UNCTAD/WTO (ITC), a United Nations technical cooperation agency for trade development, headquartered in Geneva, the databases will provide information such as international trade data, export trends, international supply and demand.

Commerce Minister Hafizuddin Ahmed formally inaugurated the databases, jointly launched by German Development Cooperation (GTZ) and Export Promotion Bureau in Dhaka.

Commerce Secretary Abdul Karim, German Ambassador to Bangladesh Frank Meyke, EPB Director General Mustafa Mohiuddin also spoke at the inaugural ceremony, among the UNCTAD/WTO (ITC) representatives.

The Trade Map, available in Internet through www.trademap.org, contains information on trade flows in goods and services and tariff measures. The website also covers five-year trade flows of over 220 countries, 41 country groups and 5,300 products representing 95 percent of the world trade.

Available in Internet at www.p-maps.org, Product Map provides information to exporters and export developing agencies that help them to look deeper into international market trend and design better export strategy.

Though the databases are accessible on a subscription basis through a password protected, the catalogues are available to enterprises and trade support institutions in Bangladesh through the EPB, as GTZ has provided support to the EPB to obtain the licensing rights to these ITC products.

At the opening speech, Commerce Minister said that as Bangladesh is working hard to diversify both export items and destinations these websites will help much in getting related information.