Bangladesh keen to have enhanced economic ties with China

Bangladesh has laid emphasis on enhanced trade and investment cooperation with China amid growing interest among Chinese investors to invest in Bangladesh.

"We are working very closely with the Chinese authorities to know the need of the Chinese importers," said State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam while addressing a virtual dialogue titled “Bangladesh-China Development Cooperation: Experience and Outlook”.

Shahriar said there is an increasing interest of investment in Bangladesh and investment will continue to grow in the exclusive economic zone in Anwara upazila of Chittagong on 800 acres of land.

He reiterated Bangladesh's commitment to having closer economic cooperation with China for mutual benefit.

Referring to high level visits between the two countries, Shahriar said there will be more such visits once the Covid-19 situation improves.

On infrastructure issues, the state minister said the infrastructure gap will not be widening; rather it will be narrowing down due to the huge amount of work being done on it.

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Vaccine diplomacy, Rohingya crisis, global initiatives like Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) were also discussed.

Mahbub Uz Zaman, Bangladesh Ambassador to China, and Li Jiming, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh attended the program, organized by Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) as guests of honour.

Ambassador M Humayun Kabir, president, Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI); Major General A N M Muniruzzaman, ndc, psc (retd), president, Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS); Cheng Min, professor, Institute for Bangladesh Studies, Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, Kunming, China; and Dr Wang Shida, deputy director, China Academy of Contemporary International Relations, Institute of South Asian Studies, Beijing, China, made comments as panelists.

Professor Rehman Sobhan, chairman of CPD, chaired the dialogue.

Dr Fahmida Khatun, executive director of CPD delivered the welcome remarks.

2020 marks the 45th anniversary of Bangladesh-China diplomatic ties.

During the past decades, development cooperation between Bangladesh and China has increased significantly, the speakers said.

The objective of the event was to review Bangladesh’s economic relationship with China and discuss the outlook for future bi-lateral partnership through investment and trade.