Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has visited Japan and China in less than two weeks' time. It attaches a significant importance to bilateral economic cooperation and further strengthening of diplomatic ties with the two Asian giants. She has sought financial assistance worth $14.90 billion from Japan for implementing half a dozen development projects, including Padma Bridge railway track, Teesta Barrage, Matarbari Ultra Supercritical Coal-fired Power Plant, Dhaka East-West Expressway and Jamuna Bridge double lines. This was the PM's first foreign trip since returning to power after the January 5 elections. Just after her visit to Japan on May 25-28, she toured China from June 6 to June 11, 2014, where she tried to woo Chinese invest by saying: "Bangladesh's involvement under numerous regional trading frameworks and development of multi-modal connectivity with the neighbours will soon make it a centre of bustling economic activity in the region."
She also said that Bangladesh was looking forward to the faster progress of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM-EC). She sought China's assistance for some of the country's key areas of development during the period of 2014-18. Welcoming the businessmen of China to Bangladesh, the Prime Minister said that she firmly believed Chinese investment in Bangladesh would be profitable and worthwhile, particularly in manufacturing and service sectors. "China is supporting our infrastructure building efforts and has also given concessionary credit in some of our important initiatives which have contributed to Bangladesh's endeavours to become a middle-income country through realisation of Vision 2021", she said.
Pointing out the huge trade imbalance between the two countries, the Prime Minister hoped that China would be importing more of Bangladeshi jute and jute products, leather and leather products, frozen fish, ceramics, lentils, etc to reduce the trade gap.
She said Bangladesh had a $646 million trade gap with Japan and drew the attention of the Japanese government to reduce it. According to latest data, Chinese investments had been on the increase with 49 Chinese companies investing over $300 million in eight Bangladesh EPZs till December, 2013. "Around 300 more Chinese investors with investment proposals worth US$ 2.3 billion have registered with our Board of Investment."
Sheikh Hasina said Chinese companies like Huawei, CMEC, ZTE, were today in Bangladesh. Besides, she said, "Chinese state-owned enterprises and private companies are making remarkable progress in power generation, infrastructure building, telecommunications, fertilisers, textiles, EMGs, leather, ceramics, packaging, accessories etc."
The Bangladesh Prime Minister reminded the Chinese businesses of the fact that Bangladesh was a market of 160 million people, 60 per cent of whom were below the age of forty years. "This young population is enterprising, talented and smart and can adapt to newer trades and technologies and they have been the driving force behind the huge growth of cellular telephones and ICT products," she said. Bangladesh ranks the third global IT freelancing destination as "our government has spread ICT services to the entire country." E-services, she said, helped employment of young people, raised the income level, reduced poverty, and improved quality of education and health, among other things.
"We are also increasing our power capacity to ensure that foreign investments thrive and prosper. At present, our current power need of 7,000 MW is met, though our production capacity exceeds 11,000 MW," she noted. During her visit to China, Dhaka and Beijing signed six instruments for execution of different projects. Both sides have agreed to Chinese support for five more projects at a total cost of US$ 5 billion. Moreover, discussions took place with Chinese leaders to elevate their existing 'economic partnership' to 'strategic partnership' based on mutual respect, equality and without any interference in internal matters of each other. China and Bangladesh have identified five priority projects for financial support. These projects are (i) Development of National Infra Network for Bangladesh Government Phase III (Expanding IT connectivity up to Union Level: Info Sarkar Phase 3), (ii) Rajshahi WASA Surface Water Treatment Plant Project, (iii) Construction of 2nd Railway-cum-Road Bridge across the River Karnaphuli at Kalurghat point near the existing railway bridge, (iv) Construction of a new single-track dual-gauge railway line from Chittagong to Cox's Bazar via Ramu to Gundum near Bangladesh-Myanmar border, and (v) Eastern Refinery Unit-II and single-point mooring (SPM) project.
China considers Bangladesh as a strategic partner and has agreed to enhance its support for Bangladesh in addressing climate change challenges and further strengthening cooperation in managing natural disasters. Both sides agreed to develop a framework of cooperation related to urban disaster rescue, and relief and rehabilitation between the two countries.
Bangladesh and China would celebrate the fortieth anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations in 2015 in a befitting manner by jointly organising various programmes throughout the year.
Bangladesh-China relations in the political sphere are close as both nations respect each other's sensitivities and work on many matters to promote world peace and stability. They also share their perceptions on regional matters as exchanges of visits at different levels have also helped "people-to-people" contacts between the two friendly nations. Meanwhile, no specific accord on the construction of a deep-sea port could be clinched during the visit as it would require further talks and evaluations. Both nations would continue discussions on this matter, which is of immense interests to Bangladesh. The Prime Minister's visit to Japan, a long-time development partner of Bangladesh, was marked by a number of remarkable deals on economic assistance from Tokyo for execution of many important development projects of this country. Japan's assistance in support of Bangladesh's economic development efforts is not a new phenomenon. But it appears that Tokyo has gone out of its way in coming out with more concrete pledges about funding such projects on a larger scale than before. This has, indeed, been a remarkable gesture from the Japanese government.
Both the visits by the Bangladesh Prime Minister have gained more 'conditional assistance and loans' than real investment. Using foreign assistance and loans calls for serious transparency which we fail to show sometimes. Zero tolerance must be shown towards corruption and timely implementation of projects should be ensured. Our transparency and timely implementation of the projects will win the two countries' favour to which we must give utmost priority.
The writer is Programme Manager, BRAC Education Programme, and vice-president, Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA)
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