KALADAN NEWS

Dated: June 9, 2005

Governments urged Bangladesh-China Road Link over Burma

Chittagong, June 9: Governments of Bangladesh and China were urged by their business leaders to establish a road link between two countries through Burma on a priority basis to boost bilateral trade and investment, yesterday.

A meeting was took place in the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) at the Chamber building in Dhaka between two countries top businessmen. 11-member of Chinese trade delegation met with business leaders of Bangladesh, while Wang Chao, first Vice-Governor of Dehong Dai and Jinto autonomous prefecture of Yunnan province of China, led the Chinese delegation.

They urged their respective governments to take immediate measures to establish a 900-km road link gap between Bangladesh and China.

The government of Bangladesh and China can discuss the issue under Bangladesh, China, India and Burma (BCIB) sub regional co-operations,” said FBCCI president Abdul Awal Minto.

It would hardly take two or three years to construct the road. China is going to be the largest trading partner of Bangladesh and construction of road via Burma would boost regional trade among China and SAARC countries, he further said.

The purpose of our visit to Bangladesh is to explore potential sea road for increasing trade volume through land roads along with air and watery. It is possible to setup a direct road link and we would like to co-operate with Bangladesh in this regards, said Wang Chao.

Bangladesh’s export to China declined from US$ 48.51 million FY 2003-2004 while import from China increase from $ 592 million to $ 1197.68 million over the same period. # #

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