The 13th Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting between Bangladesh and China is not likely to be held this month. Sources in the Economic Relations Division (ERD) say the Chinese Embassy has informed the foreign ministry that they will not be able to attend the meeting, scheduled to be held on September 27-28 in Dhaka. The 12th JEC meet was held in Beijing on July 28, 2009. The ERD had asked the Chinese authorities to confirm the date, as well as the agenda of the 13th JEC meet.
The meeting is important for Bangladesh as a number of Chinese companies have shown interest in investing in some of the big infrastructure projects in this country.
The new Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, recently said that China would ease visa restrictions and enhance trade concessions for Bangladesh. He said this during the visit of a high-level Bangladesh delegation, led by foreign secretary Md Shahidul Haque, to China in June this year. He also proposed to hold “bilateral consultation on consular matters to identify the modalities of simplifying the visa procedure”.
The two-way trade between Bangladesh and China surpassed USD 8 billion last year, with an increase of 17 per cent from the previous year. In the first quarter of this year, the trade volume reached USD 3.3 billion. However, there still remains a yawning trade imbalance between the two countries, which favours Beijing. The Chinese side said they were thinking of expanding the preferential trade arrangement which would cover almost 95 per cent of all Bangladesh goods, and discuss the issue of rules of origin to reduce the trade imbalance. The ERD also sent a list of 24 products for duty-free access to China.
On the other hand, Bangladesh foreign secretary, during his visit to China, proposed to set up an office of the China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) in Dhaka.
-With The Independent input
