China keen to take strategic relations ahead
China has expressed its interest to take ahead the bilateral strategic relations with Bangladesh by strengthening commercial and economic relations.
The country also wants to invest in the solar panel sector in Bangladesh.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi met interim government’s chief adviser Dr. Muhammad Yunus on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday (local time) and expressed his country’s interests.
News agency BSS writes: He also called professor Yunus “an old friend of the Chinese people,” as he congratulated the chief adviser for assuming the leadership of the interim government of Bangladesh.
“We have full confidence in you that you will live up to the expectations of the people,” Wang Yi said, hoping that Dr. Yunus would unite the country.
He said China would attach importance to professor Yunus’ call to Chinese solar panel manufacturers for setting up plants in Bangladesh.
The chief adviser made the call when the Chinese ambassador in Dhaka met him last month.
The Chinese foreign minister said Beijing would also encourage greater cooperation and partnership between the companies of the two nations.
He said Bangladesh would also benefit from the Chinese decision to allow zero tariff access to all goods from the Least Developed Countries.
He also said the Chinese Red Cross has sent a team of physicians to treat the students and people who were grievously injured during the July-August mass uprising.
Wang Yi said China would welcome more students from Bangladesh as well.
Muhammad Yunus thanked China for its gesture, praising “amazing” Chinese efforts to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
He said Chinese solar companies could invest in a bigger way in Bangladesh, which enjoys preferable market access to many rich nations. He also called other Chinese manufacturers to relocate their factories to Bangladesh.
The chief adviser stressed closer relations with China and opening “a new chapter” in the ties between the two nations.
He also called for increasing technological collaboration between the companies of both nations.
“We will love to collaborate with Chinese companies. We have a lot of scope to work together,” he said.