Bangladesh was the first country to become part of the BRI

Xi Jinping: The Governance of China 

When you talk about how is my life in Beijing, I must first talk about the culture here. To me, culture has two meanings. One is the cultural creativity. When you talk about the literature or artwork or music, it is the work of the musicians, poets, writers or painters. And the second way of looking at culture is related to the development and the progress and advancement of the country. Here comes the point of hard work, the will of the people to make advancement of our national prosperity. 

From these two points of view, I think China stands out. It’s very unique. I have been to many places in the course of the last 10 months. I’ve been to traditional Hutong. I’ve been to 798 Art Zone. I’ve been to the Beijing Museum of Art. I’ve been to the Tianjin Museum. I have seen some of the recent work by the young people, the show of the opera. My impression is that this is the find as the uniqueness and the richness of Chinese culture. And it is because of the fact that Chinese culture is based on 5,000 years of its history.

So my experience in the last few months is extremely rewarding. I’m very happy that I represent my country in this wonderful country, which has a great civilization, which is a very unique place in today’s world. I hope that in the coming days, China will have a very good place and leadership place. We are happy to work with China. 

I narrated one particular memory for the audience. This is my presentation of credential to President Xi Jinping. We were part of 70 ambassadors who presented to President Xi. This is because during the pandemic at that time, many ambassadors couldn’t present their credentials, and as part of a diplomatic ritual, we had to visit our letters of credential to the President. So when we went there, it was a very unique experience for me. We were part of this huge group that itself was perhaps a record. And during that occasion, I also realized that perhaps we are living behind a particular part of our history, which is the dynamic, and we are entering into a new phase of human civilization.

Secondly, I was also aware that I was presenting Bangladesh in a historic building, which is the Great Hall of the People. I realized, as I was entering into the Great Hall through those amazing doors, floor covered with the red carpet and two sides with the national flags of the countries represented on the day, and finally standing before the President to present by credentials, I could understand that I’m doing it in a historic building, but it is historic because many Chinese political leaders they delivered up in the future of the country. 

Thirdly, I was feeling that 70 ambassadors representing 70 different countries, they must have been thinking about the restrictive national interest, but at the same time, I also feel the sense of strength because all these ambassadors, when they are pursuing their own national interest, if they joined together, if they joined their hands together, if they put their heads together, they can solve many problems of the world.

So that was a very, very unique experience for me. And I was really privileged to do it in front of the President. 

First of all,  I would like to congratulate the Chinese leadership, Chinese government on the 10th Anniversary of BRI. This is really a great achievement. This was the idea of President Xi. So I would also like to congratulate and commend President Xi's leadership for BRI. BRI as a concept is about connecting countries across boundaries on a host of issues and it affects the trade as well as culture and broadly speaking the development activities of the participating countries. I would say during these 10 years the participating countries under the leadership of China made remarkable progress. 

In south Asia Bangladesh was the first country to become part of the BRI. And there are reasons for it. Bangladesh is perhaps the first country in South Asian region to talk about regional cooperation. 

So we believe that if we join hands with other countries or issues of our common interest, then we can actually more then by doing it all by ourselves. So philosophically speaking, I think China and Bangladesh, we stand on the same platform. 

And we believe in the dictum: connectivity is productivity. If you are connected then your productivity also goes up. So from that point of view we completely subscribe to China's BRI. When our Prime Minister came in 2019 to China there was a reiteration of our commitment to BRI. And before that during the historic visit of President Xi in 2016, when we elevated our relationship to the strategic level, during that visit also we reiterated our commitment to BRI. 

I think the BRI has a lot of potential, when you undertake such a huge project involving so many countries, areas and borders and in different continents, there are challenges, there are risk involved. But thanks to Chinese leadership. I think you have overcome all these challenges, and I think the future of the BRI is very good and we are really supportive of the BRI. 

Now China is engaged in our infrastructure development. They are engaged in ICT development. They are engaged in developing our green power, energy support we are getting from China, technology support we are getting from China. They are helping us in the area of poverty development. So there are a host of areas where China is really contributing to our development. 

As you know, Bangladesh is an underdeveloped country. The whole country is crisscrossed by many neighbors. You need to connect two sides of the rivers by building bridges or by having underwater tunnels. And it will be happy to know that China and Bangladesh join hands together. And so far with the Chinese assistance, we have built eight bridges, and these bridges are core of China-Bangladesh friendship bridges. These bridges really symbolize the friendship between our two countries. 

For other projects that are very important for Bangladesh, one of them is the Padma Bridge Railway Link. As you know, that the Padma Bridge is a bridge that connects the two parts of Bangladesh, the northern part and the southern part. These two parts were separated by Padma River, which is very mighty river. This whole bridge was built with the sole funding of Bangladesh, but China provided us technical and engineering assistance. There is one component which is called the Padma Rail Link, and this is built by China. When the two parts of the country is connected, then there will be a lot of economic activities in the southeastern part of Bangladesh. That means that it will impact the lives of the people in that part of the country. 

And the other important project, which is to be complicated soon, is the Bangabandhu Karnaphul Tunnel, which is the first in South Asia. And here also China is helping us. 

And they’re also helping us in other areas. But in short, I would say that for us to reach our development, China is helping us in a lot of ways.

One other example I can mention perhaps, is Chinese help in the ICT sector. That helped us to have more internet penetration toward the country. So from these examples, you can understand that Chinese footprint is very, very deep in our development narrative. 

China and South Asia together, they are very important, not only for the region, but for the entire world. 

Number one, this region, the host, number one and number two countries in terms of the size of the population. In terms of the land area, this is also very important. We have two economic powerhouses in the region. This region has three nuclear powers, one Security Council Member, namely China. So the global agenda cannot be set, discussed, pursued or executed without the participation of China and South Asia. This region is really, really important. 

And people these days are talking about the Asian Century. That means that the whole discussion and what international relations, international economics, and international politics is gradually shifting away from the traditional power centers to Asia. And China and South Asia, perhaps along with Southeast Asia, they are perhaps the core of Asian and international relations. So in future, I think China, South Asia, along with Southeast Asia, they will be setting the agenda.

Now, many people will be pointing out the challenges inherent in the relationships involving these countries. But I would say, on the bright side, on the positive side, many of these countries, they are the members of many regional organizations, for example, Bangladesh and with some South Asian countries are members of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. 

I would like to share with your audience is “connectivity is productivity”. This is a philosophy we share with China, because China very strongly believes that connectivity is good for everybody. We need to be connected for the future of the world. And we believe very strongly when you are connected, then we prosper.

Author ：Md Jashim Uddin