Japan PM Abe promises Bangladesh’s Hasina more assistance

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised Sheikh Hasina of mobilising more development assistance for Bangladesh.

He hoped the ongoing Japan-funded projects in Bangladesh would be executed ‘fast’.
 
Abe and Hasina met on the sidelines of the 60th Asian-African Conference Commemoration in Jakarta on Wednesday.
 
Hasina’s Press Secretary AKM Shameem Chowdhury said she also met Myanmar President U Thein Sein and Qatar Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud.
 
The Bangladesh leader also held bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jin Ping and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Heisen Loong, Chowdhury said.
 
After the Hasina-Abe meeting, he told reporters at Borobudur Hotel that the Japanese premier said his country’s help to Bangladesh would continue and increase.
 
Japan has been Bangladesh’s top development partner since independence.
 
Abe told Hasina that relations between the two countries were deepening bilaterally as well as on various international issues.

He hoped the ties would reach new heights.

“The comprehensive partnership between Bangladesh and Japan will be stronger in future,” Chowdhury quoted Abe as telling Hasina.

Abe wanted the projects implemented with Japanese investment, including setting up of a 1,320-megawatt coal-run power plant at Matarbarhi, to progress fast.

He thanked Hasina for her support to Japanese candidacy for a UN Security Council membership.

Abe lauded Hasina’s leadership, too, saying it had taken Bangladesh’s economy to a position of strength.

Hasina thanked for the Japanese assistance and called for more Japanese investment.

She spoke about creating a separate economic processing zone in Bangladesh for Japanese investors during her tenure.

Bangladesh’s economic growth, she believed, would be over 6.5 percent this fiscal year.

Chowdhury said Myanmar President Sein emphasised high-level exchanges during the meeting.

He stressed government and army-level consultations.

Sein and Hasina also talked about the Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar (BCIM) Corridor.

Hasina said her government wanted good relations with neighbours and emphasised commerce and security issues.

The prime minister returned to the hotel from the conference in the evening. She later attended a dinner hosted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

She went to Jakarta to attend the conference on Tuesday and is scheduled to return on Thursday.