BCIM meet begins in Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday

Officials and experts of Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar will convene in the beach city of Cox’s Bazaar on Wednesday.

It will be the second meeting of the joint study group of the emerging regional cooperation framework, BCIM-economic corridor.

This two-day meeting will discuss the “objectives, scope and modalities of cooperation” in a number of sectors that the four countries agreed before.

Bangladesh foreign ministry says the meeting will consider the studies to be presented by each country, outlining their own “perspectives and expectations” in this regard.

It will also discuss various aspects of the “institutional structure” of the proposed economic corridor.

Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque will chair the meeting.

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

The process took off in 1998 at the track II level where the think-tanks discussed about the cooperation.

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

Later, Chinese prime minister’s visit to New Delhi elevated the concept to the inter-governmental level as both Indian and Chinese leaders agreed on the prospect of such grouping.

The first joint study group meeting was held in Kunming in December last year where, among others, they agreed to undertake a “detailed study to decide on structure and modalities of the cooperation”.

Former ambassador M Humayun Kabir has seen this corridor as a means of connecting the two burgeoning markets of Bangladesh and Myanmar with the two economic giants, India and China.

Combined GDP of the four-member countries is $9,300 billion.

Kabir who is the vice-president of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) believed that despite some scepticism, the group would finally be successful.

Referring to the Chinese prime minister’s last year and this year India visit, he said it was “apparently clear” that both countries want this grouping to happen.

“We want this and I think Myanmar will also want this happening,” he said.

“We (Bangladesh, Myanmar) must want to connect with the two economic powers because they are the future of the Asian century pillars,” he said.

Bangladesh has welcomed the initiative from the beginning.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her Beijing visit this year said BCIM-EC was “a very encouraging development”.

“Once implemented it will bring our two peoples closer, strengthening the economic cooperation,” she had said.

Trade in goods and services, investment and financing, trade facilitations, energy, multimodal connectivity, sustainable development, human resource development, poverty alleviation, and people-to-people connectivity are the areas of cooperation the four countries agreed to work on.

Though it is generally known to connect the points of Kolkata to Kunming, the foreign ministry said the BCIM cooperation framework also “envisions to connect some of the ports and key nodes, cities and growth centres of the four countries”.

And it would “improve and develop key economic infrastructure and facilitate greater movement of people, culture, goods, service, investment, finance”.

“In the process, the Economic Corridor is expected to unlock parts of the four countries towards reaping greater economic synergies, complementarities. It will also upscale manifold economic opportunities with various investment projects and initiatives rolling out,” the foreign ministry said.

The government did not disclose details of the close-door meeting’s delegation, but officials told bdnews24.com that China had brought the largest delegation to join the meeting.

At least 33 officials and experts came from Beijing while eight came from New Delhi and three from Nay Pyi Taw.