Bangladesh and China are set to sign eight deals during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to China in the first week of the next month.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen addressed a press conference in Dhaka to brief the reporters about the visit on Friday, report BSS and bdnews24.com.
“Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will pay an official visit to China from July 2 to 6 at the invitation of her Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang,” the foreign minister said.
Momen said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese premier Li Keqiang in Beijing on July 4.
After the meeting, he said, eight deals – five agreements and three memorandum of understanding (MoUs) — will be inked between Bangladesh and China.
But the minister could not give details about the amount of the credit for those projects. “It’s a continuous process. We are yet to finalise this,” he said.
Those include:
1) Framework Agreement of “Expansion and Strengthening of Power System Network under DPDC Area”
2) Government Concessional Loan Agreement of “Expansion Strengthening of Power System Network under DPDC Area Project”
3) Preferential Buyer’s Credit Loan Agreement of “Expansion and Strengthening of Power System Network under DPDC Area Project”
4) Framework Agreement of “Power Grid Network Strengthening Project under PGCB” Project
5) Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation between the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and the Government of the People’s Republic of China
6) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Establishment of Investment Cooperation Working Group
7) MoU and its Implementation Plan on hydrological information sharing of Yalu Zhangbo / Brahmaputra River
8) MoU on Cultural Exchange and Tourism Programme
During the four-day visit, Sheikh Hasina will also speak at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2019 or Summer Davos in Dalian where over 1,800 leaders from government, business, civil society, academia, and arts will come together.
This visit will be different to the one of her last term which was mostly focused on investment.
This time, the visit will also focus on the political aspects with Rohingya issue getting priority in the summit-level meetings.
China-Bangladesh relationship was elevated to the “strategic partnership” level during President Xi Jinping’s visit in October 2016.
“We signed 27 agreements and MoUs during the visit of President Xi Jinping in 2016, but did not take all the loan. It’s a continuous process,” the foreign minister said.
Asked about the Chinese influence in the region through investments and subsequent debt trap in Sri Lanka, Momen said Bangladesh’s national interest is the priority of the government.
“We are aware of the debt trap. We are working in a way so that we don’t fall into such trap. We are not taking excess or non-usable loan,” he said.
The Prime Minister will leave Dhaka in a special Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight for Dalian on July 1 afternoon and reach there after midnight.
Sheikh Hasina will speak at the World Economic Forum on July 2 with the focus on ‘future of Asia’ and Bangladesh’s socio-economic development.
She will go to Beijing on July 3 in a special China flight on July 3. She will return to Dhaka on July 5 from Beijing.
Foreign Minister Momen, Prime Minister’s adviser on private sector Salman F Rahman, and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam are also on her tour party .
