Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has urged Bangladesh to press ahead with the building of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor.
He made the call at a meeting with his Bangladesh counterpart Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting on East Asia cooperation in Myanmar’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw, on Sunday.
The four countries have joined hands to build the BCIM Economic Corridor to improve the socio-economic condition of the region.
The first joint working group meeting of BCIM was held in Kunming last December. The second meeting is scheduled to be held in Bangladesh in October.
Wang Yi said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had a successful visit to China last June, during which the leaders of the two countries achieved extensive consensus on economy, trade and connectivity, and made important plans for the next step in the development of bilateral relations.
“The two sides should translate the consensus reached by the two leaders into concrete results,” he said.
He stressed intensifying exchanges at various levels and deepening practical cooperation in trade, agriculture and industrial parks.
Mahmood said Bangladesh and China stood ready to take Sino-Bangladesh relations to new heights, said a Chinese Foreign Ministry press release.
During Hasina’s visit to Beijing in June, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed raising China’s relationship with Bangladesh to the strategic level. At the moment, China only has strategic partnership with Pakistan.
Dhaka and Beijing currently share a Closer Comprehensive Partnership of Cooperation relationship.
The Chinese government agreed, during the prime minister’s visit, to construct a tunnel under the Karnaphuli River at an estimated cost of $700mn.
The two countries agreed that Chinese financial institutions would help finance six projects including the Eastern Refinery Unit-II and the Single Point Mooring (SPM) project with an approximate assistance of $5bn at an interest rate of 2% with a long repayment period.
In addition to this $5 billion, China will provide an additional $1.4bn to build a 1320 megawatt coal-based power plant.
