Collaboration deals enrich Sino-Bangladeshi relations

By Zhong Nan | China Daily | Updated: 2019-07-05 08:03

Bilateral economic cooperation between China and Bangladesh can be further enriched by financial service and new regional collaboration deals, experts said.

Their comments came after Alipay, which is under the umbrella of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group's, entered into a string of agreements in Bangladesh and Pakistan last year, assisting destination countries with technological upgrades to serve underbanked populations.

In a partnership with bKash of Bangladesh, Alipay has created a local version of a mobile payment tool mimicking Alipay, with core functionalities such as money transfer embedded on feature phones.

Xue Rongjiu, deputy director of the China Society for WTO Studies, said the new remittance service is an example of how new technologies can help countries meet their digital and financial inclusion goals.

Following the growing global use of Chinese yuan or renminbi, Bangladesh Bank - the central bank of Bangladesh and a member of the Asian Clearing Union, allowed other banks in the country to open foreign currency clearing accounts in yuan in August 2018. The move showed the South Asian nation's recognition of yuan as an international currency to be used in import, export, and any kind of financial exchanges with China.

Xue said the Bangladesh Bank's decision has diversified economic cooperation with China, as well as with other economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

From a service perspective, many opportunities will also come from the urbanization and industrialization in Bangladesh, said Yu Jianlong, secretary-general of the China Chamber of International Commerce.

He said to sustain interconnected growth, Bangladesh has been working with China and other partners to push economic integration across Asia. To meet demand in Bangladesh, China has implemented a flexible visa policy for Bangladeshi citizens who want to go to China for business and cultural exchange.

Aside from people-to-people exchanges, China, Bangladesh and Myanmar reached an agreement on electric power trade in Nay Pyi Taw last year to strengthen cooperation in electric power trading via promoting the interconnection of power grid and infrastructure development among the three countries.

The trilateral agreement to trade electric power among neighboring countries has helped improve energy security, sharing of electric resources, infrastructure development and job creation, as well as strengthen a long-term partnership, said Chen Yao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Industrial Economics.