After many years of bilateral meetings and lobbying, the Canada-Bangladesh Trade Promotion Centre Inc. is proud to announce that Bangladesh will receive Student Direct Stream status (SDS) very soon.

Due to COVID-19, the process was delayed, nevertheless, the team at CBTPC alongside education consultants from various post-secondary institutions and government officials of Canada from all levels worked diligently to come to this point. The SDS program is an expedited study-permit processing program for potential international students applying for post-secondary education in Canada. SDS-status has been given to the following countries: China, India, Morocco, Vietnam, Philippines, Senegal, and recently Pakistan.

CBTPC has worked for the past 22-years on different issues to promote trade relations, education, and research programs between our two countries. CBTPC first noted the SDSstatus which helped many students from SDS-nations reach Canada for higher education, and began lobbying in 2016 for Bangladesh.
We would like to give our utmost gratitude to Honourable Bill Blair, MP, Minister of Public Safety, Mr. Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, MP, the Chair of the Canada-Bangladesh Parliamentary Friendship Group, and Honourable Maria Minna, former-Minister International Cooperation.

We also extend our gratitude to the Bangladesh High Commissioner in Ottawa, Bangladesh Consul General in Toronto, and the representative from the Canadian Embassy in Bangladesh, for their hard work and who were present in a bilateral meeting in July 2019 with the Honourable Tipu Munshi, Minister of the Commerce People’s Republic of Bangladesh, hosted by CanadaBangladesh Trade Promotion Centre Inc.

The meeting touched upon many bilateral issues, and most importantly on education and for the SDS permission for Bangladesh. We were happy to have the principal agreement take place during this meeting. We look forward to the official announcement in the near future. 

Press Release.