Its ambassador in Dhaka Li Jun said transportation connectivity would lay “an important foundation”, but the proposed corridor must not be confined merely to that.
“It must be a connectivity of development policy, of market, of industrial layout as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges,” he said while delivering a lecture on “China’s development and China-Bangladesh bilateral relations”.
“In short, a connectivity of relative advantages,” he said, speaking at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) on Wednesday.
He said “a more dynamic” industrial chain would emerge in the process of BCIM economic corridor building.
China has been pressing ahead with the BCIM concept, as it plans to open up to Southeast and South Asia using Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province, as a hub.
To retrace the historic Southern silk route, a car rally was held in February last year from Kolkata to Kunming via Dhaka and Mandalay.
Establishing of the corridor is now being discussed at the official level with the second such talks scheduled to be held in June in Chittagong.
The ambassador said Bangladesh would play “a decisive role” in BCIM establishment due to its geographical location that connects the South East Asia and South Asia and would also “benefit most from the corridor”.
“I am looking forward to a courageous Master Plan,” he said, suggesting that Bangladesh should “hurry up” its completion of infrastructure projects like deep-sea port and highways.
“It (the economic corridor) will serve as a bar of dumbbell (for Bangladesh) that connects the two weights –Chinese market and Indian market,” he said.
The ambassador highlighted the current China, Bangladesh relations that he said was growing faster than ever and added that BCIM corridor would pull the relations to a new height.
People to people exchanges crossed 70,000 last year and the two-way trade soared over $ 10 billion, he said.
As the trade is heavily biased towards China, he suggested that Bangladesh should let in more Chinese investors as “they know what to make for Chinese markets”.
In its new reform, China estimated that in the next five years, it will invest an additional $ 500 billion in other countries, import over $ 10 trillion of products and send 400 million tourists abroad.
The ambassador said China’s new reform would create “new and greater opportunities” for China’s relations with the external world.
As a neighbour, he reiterated that “Bangladesh should have a good share of it”.
He, however, said “the more developed China becomes, the more China values a peaceful and stable neighbourhood”.
“China is determined to build an Asian community of common interest, common destiny, and common responsibility,” he said and suggested working “in unison” to promote trade liberalisation and investment facilitation, and to upgrade regional and sub-regional cooperation.
“Asia’s beautiful future hinges not only upon the development of each and every country, but more importantly, the common progress of the whole region,” he said.
He said “the complementary economic structure, proximity of geographical location and peaceful regional situation indicate the huge potentials for our bilateral cooperation”.
“China is committed to peaceful development. We love peace and cherish development,” he said, adding that China is ready to work with other countries in the region to build a peaceful, prosperous and open Asia.
That he said would help “to maintain peace, stability and tranquility in our neighbourhood by enhancing political mutual trust”.
He said everything would be possible “if we take regional cooperation and connectivity as important means for development of every country”.
The envoy also suggested connectivity in power supply as he said regional countries were mostly power-starved.
“You see natural resources in South Asian countries are not well balanced. Some countries are rich in water resources, some are in coal, but all countries lack in power”.
“China supports constructive and mutually beneficial regional cooperation,” he said.
