Rizvi urges greater access for Bangladeshi products to Chinese market

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Acting Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi urged greater access for Bangladeshi products to the Chinese market hoping that this would help reduce the existing trade deficit between the two countries.

Noting that Bangladesh offered significant investment opportunities for Chinese investors in manufacturing, infrastructure, energy, information technology, agriculture and textiles, Rizvi said Chinese investors could capitalise on these opportunities.

Rizvi made the remarks at a roundtable titled 'Where History Illuminates the Future: China Bangladesh "Political Parties Plus",' organised by the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka. The Bangladesh-China Centre for Party and State Governance Studies was inaugurated afterwards.

The senior BNP leader said the BNP was committed to pursuing an independent, balanced and forward-looking foreign policy based on Bangladesh's national interests.

He emphasised the importance of further advancing the longstanding relationship with China, alongside increasing economic cooperation and investment.

Rizvi further said that the foundation of relations between Bangladesh and China had been laid during the tenure of Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman and had gained further momentum during the tenure of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. He emphasised advancing relations on the basis of long-term friendship, equality and mutual benefit.

Rizvi said Bangladesh and China had longstanding relations based on friendship, mutual respect, trust and partnership. Communication and cooperation between the political parties and peoples of the two countries needed to be further strengthened.

At the event, Liu Haixing, minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), presented the keynote paper. Liu Haixing is currently on a three-day visit.

Among others, Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar, National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener and Opposition Chief Whip Nahid Islam, and former professor of the Department of International Relations at Dhaka University Imtiaz Ahmed spoke at the event.

Also present at the roundtable were Prime Minister's Political Adviser Nazrul Islam Khan, BNP Vice-Chairman and former Home Minister Air Vice Marshal (retd) Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed Islam.