Bangladesh to benefit from China’s opening-up: politicians
by Naim-Ul-Karim
DHAKA, March 2 (Xinhua) — Bangladesh will benefit from China’s opening-up and promotion of international cooperation through initiatives like the Belt and Road, officials and observers said ahead of China’s annual “Two Sessions.”
Congratulating the upcoming sessions of China’s top legislative and advisory bodies, the South Asian nation’s politicians praised China’s “remarkable” development achieved in the past and expected to learn more from it in the future.
Noting that a big global audience has been encouraged by the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the politicians said China has a global vision to let humanity become more prosperous.
Social Welfare Minister Rashed Khan Menon told Xinhua on Wednesday that countries like Bangladesh will immensely benefit from China’s growth, as China has emerged as a major economy on the world stage.
The Communist Party of China led by Xi is capable enough to build a modernized socialist China with Chinese characteristics, said Khan, who is also the chairman of the Workers’ Party of Bangladesh, an ally of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling alliance.
Asaduzzaman Ripon, special secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said “We as Asians are all so proud of China and its achievements in the recent years,” noting that China’s great success in reducing poverty has made it a good example of global anti-poverty efforts.
Ripon spoke highly of the Chinese government and people for their assistance and cooperation in promoting the development of Bangladesh over the years, adding that Bangladesh enjoys a close friendship with China.
Munshi Faiz Ahmad, chairman of the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, said countries that have joined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) will surely benefit from it.
“BRI and AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) have already created ample opportunities,” he said. “It will be a big mistake if BRI is misunderstood as a Chinese-interest-only initiative.”
Proposed by China to advance regional development, the multilateral AIIB has already registered some 84 members in Asia and beyond since it was established in 2016.
Ahmad, who is also a former Bangladeshi ambassador to China, said China’s commitment to opening-up and efforts to make its financial markets more international will help other countries.
Many countries have already benefited from the reform and opening-up in China, which lifted more than 66 million people out of poverty between 2013 and 2017, Ahmad said, adding that China’s methods in poverty reduction are enviable and could help other developing nations.
China had lifted 700 million people out of poverty through more than 30 years of reform and opening-up, according to a white paper released by the Chinese government in December 2016.
He said China has emerged as a global role model thanks to its remarkable achievements in various other areas, including shifting from an external demand-driven economy to a domestic demand-driven economy.
Ahmad said he saw domestic consumption as the most important driver of the Chinese economy, as suggested by the supply-side reforms, adding that the economy has also “shifted from quantity to quality with a sharp rise in the number of middle-income Chinese.”