Xi’s Bangladesh visit will be breakthrough for connectivity: Yunnan think-tank

A Yunnan think-tank that studies Bangladesh sees Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Dhaka visit a “breakthrough” for the regional connectivity.

Nurul Islam Hasibbdnews24.com
Published : 12 Oct 2016, 06:20 PM
Updated : 12 Oct 2016, 06:20 PM

“The visit by President Xi is the first visit by a Chinese president in the past 30 years, which is a belated visit but should be most highly regarded,” Suiyan Guo told bdnews24.com in an email interview.

She is the deputy director of the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute for Bangladesh Studies, which was established last year as the first research institute in China that focuses on Bangladesh.

Yunnan is the China’s gateway province to Southeast and South Asia.

China termed the president’s two-day visit “milestone” and said he would push forward cooperation within the framework of China’s ‘belt and road initiative’.

The ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative that promotes regional and cross-continental connectivity between China and Eurasia is the centrepiece of China’s economic diplomacy.

In line with that, China is also working on a Bangladesh, China, India, and Myanmar or BCIM economic corridor to connect the South Asia with Southeast Asia. The corridor will connect Dhaka with Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province.

“As a Yunnan scholar and long participant in BCIM initiative, I particularly hope that President Xi’s visit could bring China-Bangladesh relation to a new phase, and give BCIM cooperation a breakthrough,” Guo said.

She said the two countries are now already cooperating on many issues in some of the multilateral platforms such as BCIM regional cooperation.

“The BCIM has special meaning to Yunnan Province of China.  As the major province from China to initiate and engage in BCIM, Yunnan highly values its links with Bangladesh by trade, air connectives and by flow of people.

“Bangladesh is particularly important to Yunnan in its effort to engage South and Southeast Asia, it is a bridge linking Yunnan with South Asian countries,” she said.

Xi, during his visit, would meet his counterpart President Md Abdul Hamid and will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The prime minister in an interview with the China’s state-run news agency Xinhua expressed confidence that the visit would usher in “a new era of intensive cooperation” in trade, investment and other sectors between the countries.

She also hailed the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative, and said Bangladesh is also working to connect growth centres of the country with the rest of the region in South Asia and create a single economic contiguity between South Asia and Southeast Asia.

And this "would be host to greater integration with East Asia and connect the three ecosystems to the rest of the world through our seaports in the south", she added.

Dhaka is also expecting a number of deals for infrastructure development with China’s support.

“Being one of China’s close neighbour and friendly countries as well as a developing country with big population, Bangladesh shares complementarities with China in various economic sectors, and is enable the two countries to build up a partnership for development,” Guo said.