Dhaka vies for BCIM corridor meet

Bangladesh is expecting to host the next joint study group meeting of the proposed Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor in the beach city of Cox’s Bazar in September, the foreign minister has said.

Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, briefing journalists on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s upcoming China visit from Saturday, said “serious efforts” were on to implement the economic corridor.

He hoped the Prime Minister’s visit would add “pace” to the process.

The foreign minister said the BCIM cooperation was imperative to fulfilling the idea of regional cooperation.

The first joint working group meeting was held in December last year in Kunming, two months after the first official-level meeting in 14 years of BCIM’s preparatory exercises in October in Dhaka.

China has been pressing ahead with the BCIM concept, as it plans to reach out to Southeast and South Asia using Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province, as a hub.

To retrace the historic Southern Silk Road route, a car rally was held in February last year from Kolkata to Kunming via Dhaka and Mandalay.

China had earlier said the economic corridor would officially set up the mechanism to promote cooperation among the regional grouping.

The corridor is being seen as a means of easing the flow of goods between the world’s two largest economies, India and China, and proving greater economic resources to the burgeoning markets of Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The four-member countries with their total GDP of $9,300 billion have every potential to become a strong block in global politics.

Hasina would begin her China visit from Kunming on Saturday.

She would join the inaugural ceremony of the second China-South Asia Expo and deliver a speech.

She would also speak at the China-South Asia Business Forum in Kunming, before going to Beijing where she would have a bilateral meeting with her Chinese counterpart.

The foreign minister said Bangladesh would seek $ 4 billion Chinese loan for six selected projects.