B’desh to evolve as virtual bridge between S Asia, Southeast Asia: China
China will provide 600 million RMB as development assistance for Bangladesh next year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said.
The offer came during a bilateral meting between Wang Yi and visiting Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni in Beijing Sunday, said a Foreign Ministry release on Monday.
This amount also includes 400 million RMB that has been under discussion between the two countries for different development projects.
During their bilateral talks, both the Foreign Ministers discussed the whole gamut of Bangladesh-China relations, including trade, investment, connectivity, agriculture, defence, education, climate change, scientific collaboration, maritime cooperation, tourism, and relaxation of visa regime for easing people-to-people contact and travels undertaken by businesspeople 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 also expressed its deep appreciation for the “wonderful” socio-economic achievements of Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and assured Bangladesh of their total support for continued socioeconomic progress of Bangladesh in the days to come.
Terming Bangladesh 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 proposed having frequent exchange of high-level visits between Bangladesh and China and forming 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, the Bangladesh Foreign Minister also deeply appreciated China’s impressive socioeconomic progress and hoped that Bangladesh will be able to gain from China’s success stories in all possible areas, including agricultural innovations, scientific collaborations in areas of mutual interests like maritime and oceanographic affairs, information technology, space explorations, climate change and water management.
Dipu Moni also welcomed Chinese initiatives for greater integration among the BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar) countries and added that in this age of globalization all need to devote more resources for greater integration in the region.
She emphasised 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.
Source: UNB Connect
