Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave Dhaka for Phnom Penh on Sunday morning on a three-day official visit to Cambodia.

The prime minister will pay the visit at the invitation of her Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen as Dhaka hopes it (visit) would help strengthen bilateral cooperation in the important sectors between the two Asian nations.

A VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the prime minister and her entourage members will take off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport tomorrow morning for the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh.

The flight is scheduled to reach Phnom Penh International Airport at 12:30pm (Cambodia time) the same day.

The minister-in-waiting appointed by Cambodian premier Hun Sen, and Bangladesh Ambassador to Thailand Saida Muna Tasneem, who is concurrently accredited to Cambodia, will receive the prime minister at the airport.

After the reception at the airport, a ceremonial motorcade will escort Sheikh Hasina to Hotel Sofitel, where she will be staying during her visit to Cambodia.

In the afternoon, the Bangladesh premier will place wreaths at the Independence Monument at Phnom Penh.

She will also lay wreaths at the Royal Memorial Statue of Late King of Cambodia Norodom Sihanouk.

The prime minister will join a dinner to be hosted by the Bangladesh ambassador to Cambodia. Bangladesh community living in Cambodia will also attend the function.

On Monday, the prime minister will hold official talks with her Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen. Before the talks the two premiers will have a tete-a- tete.

Later, 11 instruments—two agreements and nine memorandums of understanding (MoUs)—will be signed between Bangladesh and Cambodia in the presence of the two prime ministers.

The naming of two important roads in Dhaka and Phnom Penh after the Father of the Nation of both the countries will be announced at the function, while Sheikh Hasina and Hun Sen will later deliver a joint press statement.

The Bangladesh prime minister will have a royal audience with King of Cambodia Norodom Sihamon and will separately call on Cambodian Senate President Say Chhum and National Assembly President Heng Samrin.

Sheikh Hasina will join a business dialogue as the chief guest to be arranged by the Cambodian Chamber and attend the official dinner to be hosted by the Cambodian premier.

Wrapping up her three-day official visit to Cambodia, the prime minister will return home in the afternoon on December 5.

‘This visit would contribute immensely to expanding cooperation in food, agriculture, fisheries, tourism and ICT...this would also add a new dimension to the existing bilateral ties between the two countries,’ Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told a press conference on Thursday.

He said the prime minister would hold bilateral talks with her Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen focusing on trade and investment and cooperation in various sectors.

The 11 deals and MoUs which are expected to be signed between the two countries are: civil aviation flight operation deal, agreement relating to formation of Joint Trade Council, cooperation agreement to implement SDGs by 2030, MoU relating to labour and vocational education, cooperation deal in tourism sector and preservation of history of liberation war and monument, MoU in fisheries and aquaculture, MoU in expansion of investment, cooperation agreement between the trade bodies of the two countries and expanding academic ties between Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) and Royal Academy (RAC) of Cambodia.

The foreign minister said it has been decided to name ‘Baridhara Park Road’ in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone after Cambodia’s late King Norodom Sihanouk and a road in Phnom Penh after Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.