China offers 600 million RMB for Bangladesh

By Sheuli Akter,
DHAKA, Oct. 21 (NsNewsWire) — China will provide 600 million RMB as development assistance for Bangladesh next year.
This was conveyed by Wang Yi, Foreign Minister of People’s Republic of China to visiting Foreign Minister of Bangladesh during their bilateral talk in Beijing yesterday.
This amount also includes 400 million RMB that have been under discussion for different development projects between the two countries.
During their bilateral talk, both the Foreign Ministers discussed about the whole gamut of Bangladesh-China relations ranging from, among others,  trade, investment, connectivity, agriculture, defence, education, climate change, scientific collaboration, maritime cooperation, tourism, and relaxation  of visa regime for ease of people to people contact and travel undertaken by business people between the two countries.
China expressed the view that there should be consular consultations on a regular basis to make the visa regime easier and accordingly invited a consular delegation from Bangladesh to discuss this issue further.

China expressed their deep appreciation for the “wonderful” socio-economic achievements of Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and assured their total support for continued socio-economic progress of Bangladesh in the days to come.
Terming Bangladesh as a “big country” in the South Asia, Chinese Foreign Minister hoped that Bangladesh would gradually evolve as a virtual bridge between South Asia and the South East Asia.

China also specifically proposed to have frequent exchange of high level visits between Bangladesh and China and also proposed to form diversified linkages among people and businesses for greater economic and trade linkages, cultural exchanges and wished to broaden areas of cooperation in other emerging areas as well.

Welcoming China’s generous offers, Bangladesh Foreign Minister also deeply appreciated China’s impressive socio-economic progress and hoped that Bangladesh will be able to gain from China’s success stories in all possible areas including, but not limited to, agricultural innovations, scientific collaborations in areas of mutual interests like maritime and oceanographic affairs, information technology, space explorations, climate change and water management.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister also welcomed Chinese initiative for greater integration among the BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar) countries and added that in this age of globalization we have to devote more resources for greater integration in the region. Bangladesh Foreign Minister emphasized the need for immediate road, railway and grid connectivity among the countries for the benefit of people in the region. China also assured their readiness for the proposed initiatives including grid connectivity in the region.

Chinese Foreign Minister, appreciating Bangladesh’s strategic location and its potential as a regional hub, expressed their keenness for investments in Bangladesh. While conveying Bangladesh’s considerations of the proposals for Chinese Economic/Industrial zones, Bangladesh Foreign Minister also drew attention of China to the huge pool of human resources in Bangladesh and requested necessary assistance from China for capacity building in selected professions/vocations through different forms of vocational trainings.  The Bangladesh Foreign Minister also requested for consideration of increasing the number of scholarships for Bangladeshi students.

It may be noted that Foreign Minister arrived Beijing on the afternoon of 19 July for a two day official visit to the People’s Republic of China. Foreign Minister also attended a banquet lunch arranged in her honor by her Chinese counterpart at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China. Bangladesh Ambassador to China Mr. Muhammad Azizul Haque and other high government officials also participated in the bilateral talks that lasted for over two and a half hours on the morning of 20 October 2013.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni is scheduled to call on the Vice President of China as well as presenting a key note paper at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) tomorrow before her departure for Dhaka on the morning of 22 October 2013.