Description
Being a democratic country with extensive support for market oriented economic policies, Bangladesh has been viewed as a potential area by China. China-Bangladesh relations have been historically dominated by trade and investments. Residing under the same continent, China has been the biggest trading partner and one of the most trusted friends of Bangladesh since formal diplomatic relations were established in the mid-1970s. Since 1991, the trade relations between them continued to improve and it is consistent till now. The glaring examples of Chinese infrastructural investment in Bangladesh are the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre and five Bangladesh-China friendship bridges. China has always tried to maintain friendly relations with Bangladesh as well as the two major political parties. Chinese investment in the year 2010 drastically increased to US$200 million, and the trend continues thereby (Akanda, 2017). The 43rd anniversary of Bangladesh-China diplomatic relations witnessed a spectacular transformation in mutual trade. China became Bangladesh’s largest trading partner, with the two-way trade being more than US$11 billion in 2017 as per the official information of Bangladesh (Rahman, 2017). Some of the major elevators of the bilateral trade and investment are: Agreement of Economic and Technological Cooperation and the Agreement of Trade Payment, 1977; Joint Committee on Economy, Trade, Science and Technology, 1983; Agreement of Trade, 1989; Avoidance of Double Taxation, 1996; Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation, 2002; Concessions under Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) and World Trade Organisation (WTO); Joint statements during the visit of the Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2016 etc.
