DT e-Paper, Saturday, October 15, 2016

News 3
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2016
DT
Dhaka receives
Xi with warmth
• Agencies
Bangladesh yesterday rolled out
the red carpet as Chinese President
Xi Jinping reached Dhaka on a historic
two-day state visit, the first by
a Chinese head of state in 30 years.
Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid
received his Chinese counterpart
at the VVIP terminal of Dhaka
airport at 11:36am, amid a booming
21-gun salute. A young girl accompanying
President Hamid presented
him with a bouquet.
Xi Jinping moved to the saluting
dais accompanied by his Bangladesh
counterpart, and received guard of
honor and inspected the guard.
Senior cabinet members, PM’s
advisers and senior officials were
present on the presentation line.
A 13-member high-profile delegation,
including Chinese Foreign
Minister Wang Yi, Finance Minister
Lou Jiwei, Commerce Minister Gao
Hucheng, Governor of the People’s
Bank of China Zhou Xiaochuan, accompanied
the Chinese president.
A ceremonial motorcade then escorted
the Chinese leader to the Le
Meridian Hotel amid tight security.
The Chinese president will visit
the National Martyrs Memorial this
morning. He will also sign the visitors’
book and plant a sapling.
President Xi will reach the airport
straight from Savar and leave for
Goa, India at 10am by a special VVIP
flight. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
will see him off at the airport.
Dhaka and Beijing signed nearly
three dozen agreements of cooperation
yesterday. The visit has taken
place three decades after then Chinese
president Li Xiannian visited
Bangladesh in March, 1986. •
$24bn loan will build power plants, seaport, railways
• Reuters
China is set to sign off on loans
worth over $24 billion to Bangladesh
during President Xi Jinping’s
visit on Friday, Dhaka’s biggest
foreign credit line to date that will
help it build power plants, a seaport
and railways.
Xi’s trip, the first by a Chinese
president in 30 years, is aimed at
boosting China’s involvement in
infrastructure projects at a time
when India is pushing investments
of its own in Bangladesh, a country
New Delhi considers its area of influence.
China plans to finance around
25 projects, including a 1,320 megawatt
(MW) power plant, and is also
keen to build a deep sea port.
“Xi’s visit will set a new milestone.
Record amount of loan
agreements will be signed during
the visit, roughly $24bn,” he said.
Among the proposed projects
are highways and information
technology development, he said.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Hotel Le
Meridien in Dhaka yesterday evening
PID
Chinese President Xi Jinping, accompanied by Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid, receives a guard of honour from the
armed forces personnel at Dhaka airport upon his arrival yesterday
PID
“Our infrastructure needs are big,
so we need huge loans.”
China’s TBEA signed a power
grid deal worth $1.6bn with Dhaka
Power, following a pact that
Jiangsu Etern’s consortium signed
on Thursday to strengthen Bangladesh’s
power grid network valued
at $1.1bn.
Beijing is especially keen to revive
a plan to build a deep sea port
in Sonadia which has been on hold
for years, officials said.
Zhao Gancheng, director of
Khaleda urges Xi to
continue assistance
• Tribune Desk
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has
urged Chinese President Xi Jinping
to continue their assistance
for Bangladesh’s various activities,
especially the development ones,
and always stand by it.
The BNP chief made the call
during a meeting with the visiting
Chinese President at a city hotel
yesterday evening, reports UNB.
During the 30 minute-meeting
which kicked off at 5pm, Khaleda
and Xi Jinping discussed various
bilateral issues, said BNP Secretary
General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir
while briefing reporters after
the meeting.
Quoting Khaleda, Fakhrul said
the BNP chief mentioned her late
husband and former president
Ziaur Rahman, who had established
Bangladesh’s diplomatic ties
with China.
South Asia Studies at Shanghai Institute
for International Studies,
said both India and China supported
development in Bangladesh,
and that it did not have to be one
or the other.
China is currently Bangladesh’s
biggest trade partner with annual
turnover of around $10bn which is
heavily in favour of Beijing.
Bangladesh has backed Xi’s
“One Belt, One Road” initiative
to boost trade and transport links
across Asia and into Europe, seeing
“Later, an overwhelming relation
developed between the two
countries that still continues,”
Khaleda was quoted by Fakhrul as
saying.
The BNP chairperson also described
China as Bangladesh’s
important and genuine friend,
Fakhrul said.
During the meeting, he said,
the Chinese president expressed
the hope that Bangladesh would
support the role China is playing in
the geological field and the development
activities it is carrying out.
BNP Standing Committee
members Khandaker Mosharraf
Hossain, Mahbubur Rahman and
Nazrul Islam Khan, chairperson’s
advisers Reaz Rahman and Sabihuddin
Ahmed were present at the
meeting.
The Chinese president arrived
Dhaka yesterday morning on a historic
state visit. •
it as an opportunity to lift growth.
India has reservations about the
plan, amid worries that it is an attempt
to build a vast zone of Chinese
influence.
Beijing had proposed an economic
corridor linking Bangladesh,
Myanmar, China and northern India,
but New Delhi did not seem
keen on the idea, Zhao said.
Xi visited Dhaka en route to a
BRICS summit of the world’s leading
emerging economies in Goa,
India. •
Bangladeshi-born
Rupa Huq UK
shadow minister
• Tribune Desk
Dr Rupa Huq, a British Labour Party
member of House of Commons,
was picked as the shadow minister
for Home Affairs by her party leader
Jeremy Corbyn yesterday.
The move made the Bangladeshi-born
MP, elected from Ealing
Central and Acton constituency, a
Labour Party frontbencher in the
British parliament. She bagged
22,002 votes in the May 7, 2015 UK
General Elections.
Rupa is also senior lecturer at
the sociology department of Kingston
University. Her ancestral
home is in Pabna.
“Honoured to take up a shadow
ministerial position in Home Affairs
on Labour frontbench,” Rupa
tweeted after the news of her induction
came out. She will be joining
Shadow minister of education
Angela Rayner’s team. •