Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday opened talks at Sandton, the financial district of South Africa, to discuss further cooperation between their two countries in overcoming common challenges.
The meeting began after 6:30pm, local time, (10:30pm Bangladesh time) at Hilton Hotel.
The two leaders are meeting for the second time since October 14, 2016, when President Xi held talks with PM Hasina during his visit to Bangladesh.
In Wednesday’s meeting, Bangladesh wants to discuss the importance of regional peace and stability, enhanced trade and investment, and loan issues with the Chinese leader, said officials accompanying the prime minister
The prime minister is visiting Johannesburg to attend the BRICS-Africa Outreach and the BRICS Plus Dialogues.
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, who is accompanying the prime minister, said China is the development partner of Bangladesh and the two countries signed a number of projects and MoUs worth a total $23 billion with the government in addition to $13 billion from the private sector.
"But we got only $4 billion in the last eight years. Expediting the projects can be a topic of discussion,” he said.