Promote Bangladesh in Beijing to lure Chinese investors, advises ambassador

Chinese Ambassador Ma Mingqiang has advised Bangladesh to promote itself in Beijing to woo investors.

“Many Chinese people don’t have deep understanding about Bangladesh,” he said. “They consider Bangladesh a very close neighbour, but they don’t have understanding about the opportunities of doing businesses and investment.”

The ambassador was delivering a lecture on China’s economic growth on Thursday at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS).

Bangladesh exported only about $500 million to China, though the two-way trade soared over $10 billion last year.

Mingqiang said Chinese investors could bring their money to Bangladesh and then re-export products to China in a bid to narrow down the trade gap.

He said they were working on setting up the special economic zone that the government had offered them.

“We need to pay more attention so that Chinese people can get to know more about Bangladesh,” he said.

“This is also true for Bangladesh’s people. They know China is a very big country and good friend of Bangladesh. But they don’t know much about China”.

Mingqiang said they were working on enhancing the connectivity.

The ambassador, however, said the bilateral “relationship is moving forward on all fronts with a strong momentum”.

This year marks the 40 years of the diplomatic ties between the countries.

“I have all the reason to believe that the bilateral relations will gain strength from time to time and bring more tangible benefit not only to our two countries but also to the region and the world as a whole”.

The ambassador was also optimistic that President Xi Jinping, who was invited by his Bangladesh counterpart Md Abdul Hamid, would visit Dhaka.

“The president said the warmest invitation from the closest friend cannot be turned down. I suppose he will come. But I don’t know the time,” he said.

He was hopeful about implementation of BCIM economic corridor with Bangladesh, India and Myanmar and said this would bring much benefit to Bangladesh due to its strategic location.