THE Governor of the Chinese Province of Yunnan’s Li Jiheng said that in his view Bangladesh would become a hot destination for global investment in the coming days. Mr. Li, on behalf of Yunnan Province, expressed strong willingness to become an instrumental partner with Bangladesh. He requested Bangladesh to use Yunnan province as a spring board for expanded trade and business between Bangladesh and China. For Bangladesh, Yunnan Province is one of the closest provinces of China as termed by Mr. Li as “Next door neighbour to Bangladesh”.
Mr. Li’s remarks came along with an invitation for the Bangladeshi Prime Minister to join the China-South Asia Expo to be held in Kunming in the first week of June. The Prime Minister said that the exhibition that it would be a golden opportunity for the South Asian countries including Bangladesh to enhance their trade and commerce.
At least 4,700 Bangladeshi items are getting zero tariff access in China now and Bangladesh exports to China is growing much faster than that of China itself. The two countries signed nine different bi-lateral agreements to increase their mutual relationship. On the invitation of Bangladesh China was added as an observer in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Following the Bangladesh PM’s visit to Kunming in 2010, Kunming it was decided to establish road connection between Kunming and Bangladesh through Myanmar and it was hoped that the Myanmar government would look into it for greater economic benefits of the region as a whole. Experts opine that if the economic corridor of BCIM (Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar) is implemented fully, then all the four member countries would benefit from this forum. The two-way trade, commerce and investment between Bangladesh and China could have increased manifold and the rising trend would continue further in the days to come.
The need for setting up of roads and rail connectivity between Bangladesh and Kunming via Myanmar is being felt direly now and if it could be achieved, connectivity would have increased to a great extent the trade and commerce between the two places. As air communication is achieved with Dhaka, Bangladesh feels that direct communication between Chittagong and Kunming through road via Myanmar would take the relationship and trade with China to the next level.
Traditionally, Bangladesh used to counterbalance Indian hegemony by playing the China card in trade and military relations. However gratuitous might be the India friendly policy of the present government, it is always a prudent strategy to diversify the portfolios in different sides -rhetorically not putting all the eggs in the same basket. Bangladesh has always had a chance to strengthen its relations with China in the IT, defense, power, agriculture, fisheries and mining and gas sectors. We also urge the Chinese government to use their leverage with the Myanmar regime so that connectivity is achieved through Myanmar and the shared ethnic issue of Rohingya’s could be negotiated peacefully.
