China will provide grant assistance of approximately $72.57 million to Bangladesh under an agreement on economic and technical cooperation between Bangladesh and China.
The grant shall be utilised for the welfare projects such as disaster management, bridge construction and so on. Detailed matters will be stipulated in separate agreements to be signed between the two sides.
The Economic Relations Division (ERD) secretary Monowar Ahmed and Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh Zhang Zuo signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides at the Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) conference room in the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area on Sunday.
After signing of the agreement, ERD secretary Monowar Ahmed said for Bangladesh the economic ties with China are of greater significance as China is now the largest trading partner of Bangladesh.
He also requested the Chinese ambassador to expedite the process for signing the other financial agreements which are in the pipeline.
Chinese ambassador said the friendship between the two countries is a long lasting one and China always attaches greater importance to the development assistance of Bangladesh.
“In future, China will continue to offer its best to support and bolster Bangladesh’s economy and development,” said Zhang Zuo adding that they would jointly push forward the construction of 9th, 10th and 11th friendship bridges in Bangladesh.
The other important completed projects with Chinese grant assistance include – construction of an international standard conference centre; and Eighth Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridges; agricultural equipment; hybrid rice technology cooperation; medical equipment; dredger, scanner for customs.
Besides, some important on-going grant projects are construction of China-Bangladesh Friendship Exhibition Center at Purbachal; Burn Unit of Chattogram Medical College; rescue equipments for fire service and flood management planning.
High officials of the embassy of China in Dhaka and senior government officials were present during the signing ceremony.
Source: Prothom Alo.
