State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam has expressed optimism that the “pilot project” of Rohingya repatriation would be executed at an early date. He thanked China for its “active role” in a trilateral initiative among Bangladesh, Myanmar and China to provide a platform for dialogue to promote the early return of the forcibly displaced Rohingyas to Myanmar. Newly appointed Ambassador of China to Bangladesh Yao Wen met the State Minister for Foreign Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday afternoon and discussed the issues of mutual interest. Responding to a question on Rohingya repatriation, Ambassador Wen said they have a common objective with Bangladesh regarding repatriation of Rohingyas to their homeland. He recognised Bangladesh's "sacrifice" in hosting the huge number of Rohingyas and assured of playing its role for their repatriation. “We discussed the issue. You pay a lot. You suffered a lot. You sacrificed a lot. We have the common objective (repatriation),”said Ambassador Wen. Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char and not a single Rohingya has been repatriated over the last six years. The State Minister also highlighted the importance of establishing direct air connectivity and requested the Chinese Ambassador to consider Bangladesh as a suitable place for industry relocation from China, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Chinese Ambassador showed interest to conclude a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on PPP for the growth of bilateral trade and commerce. State Minister Alam hoped that the bilateral relations between the two countries would reach new heights during the tenure of the new Ambassador. Both sides cordially exchanged views on bilateral and multilateral cooperation of mutual interests, including trade and investment, infrastructure development, connectivity and Covid situation. Congratulating the new Ambassador on the Chinese New Year’s Day, the State Minister thanked China for being the largest bilateral trade partner of Bangladesh. During the meeting, he also thanked the Chinese government for its support in dealing with Covid-19 pandemic and the repatriation of Bangladeshi students from China and their subsequent return to China to continue their higher studies. He wished Ambassador Yao successful tenure in Bangladesh and assured him of full cooperation in discharge of his duties.

The 11th International Infrastructure Investment and Construction Forum (IIICF), collaboratively hosted by the China International Contractor Association and Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute has been kicked off in Macao. More than 400 entities and 1000 political, business and academic leaders have been invited to discuss infrastructure issues such as opportunities and challenges faced by international infrastructure cooperation, the trends of the international infrastructure market in the post-pandemic era and how the international industry can surmount the difficulties and promote the sustainable development of global infrastructure through strengthened cooperation. On Thursday, Sultana Afroz, Secretary of the government of Bangladesh and Chief Executive Officer of Public Private Partnership (PPP) Authority delivered her speech in the forum virtually as the representative of Bangladesh. In her speech at the 11th IIICF she mentioned that Bangladesh has evolved into an investment destination under the supreme and able leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Bangladesh has the most liberal investment policy in South Asia. Highlighting the unprecedented investment opportunities in the infrastructure industry in Bangladesh she said, PPP Authority is supporting 79 PPP projects covering health, transport, IT, civil accommodation, shipping, social infrastructure, food and tourism sector. The authority has also signed a MoU for jointly implementing PPP projects through government to government partnership with Japan, Singapore, UAE and Korea. In the forum Sultana Afroz also proposed some interventions for implementing infrastructure projects in Bangladesh. She said that the Chinese contractors can cover the designing, manufacturing and shipping parts of the process while the implementation can be taken by the country’s local subcontractors under Chinese supervisors’ guidance. Mentioning the Covid-19 pandemic has cemented the new way for carrying out operations, she said that online communication and operational platforms have proven to be a solution and we should take full advantage of such technology. AH