Masum Billah :
Bangladeshi Prime Minister visited Japan and China in less than two weeks time which attaches significant importance in terms of bilateral economic cooperation and further strengthening the diplomatic ties with these two Asian giants. She sought financial assistance worth $14.90 billion from Japan for implementing half a dozen development projects including Padma rail link, Teesta barriage, Matarbari Ultra supercritical coal-fired power plan, Dhaka east-west expressway and Jamuna double lines. This was her first foreign trip abroad since returning to power after the January 5 election. Just after her tour to Japan from 25-28 May she again toured China from 6 June to 11 June 2014 where she tried to lure the Chinese investment in this way “Bangladesh’s involvement in numerous regional trading frameworks and development of multi-modal connectivity with the neighbours will soon make it a center of bustling economic activity in the region.”She also said that Bangladesh is looking forward to the quicker progress of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM-EC). She sought China’s assistance for some of our key areas of development during the period of 2014-18. Welcoming the businessmen of China to Bangladesh she 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 realization of “Vision 2021”.
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. We have $646 million trade gap with Japan and she drew the attention of the Japanese government to reduce it. Chinese investments have also 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, are today in Bangladesh. Besides, she said, Chinese state-owned enterprises and private companies are making remarkable progress in power generation, infrastructure building, telecommunications, fertilizers, textiles, EMGs, leather, ceramics, packaging, accessories etc. Our prime minister reminded them that Bangladesh is a market of 160 million people, 60 percent of whom are 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 third in global IT freelancing destination as our government has spread ICT services in the entire country. E-services, she said, have 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 said. During her visit to China Dhaka and Beijing signed six instruments for execution of different projects. Both sides agreed for 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 to 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 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 strategic partner and agreed to enhance its support to Bangladesh in addressing climate change challenges as well further strengthen cooperation on managing natural disasters. Both sides agreed to develop a framework of cooperation related to urban disaster rescue, relief and rehabilitation between the two countries. Bangladesh and China would celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations in 2015 in a befitting manner by jointly organizing various programs 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 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 gain more conditional assistance and loan than real investment. Using foreign assistance and loan calls for serious transparency which we fail to do sometimes. So, 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 their favour which we must give topmost priority.
(Masum Billah is Program Manager: BRAC Education Program and Vice-President: Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association ( BELTA), Email: [email protected] )
