US, China pledge deeper ties with Bangladesh

The United States and China have made fresh offers to increase economic cooperation and assistance to Bangladesh.

American Ambassador Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat and Chinese Ambassador Ma Mingqiang met separately with Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday.

Bernicat offered assistance for Bangladesh from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) to finance regional connectivity projects, Muhith said.

MCA is a special fund of the USA. Bangladesh had previously failed to get funds from the MCA, after it could not meet the attached terms and conditions, Muhith said after the meeting.

Bangladesh can now apply for funds from the MCA, and it is likely to be granted, Muhith said referring to the US envoy.

But the finance minister told Bernicat that Bangladesh has decided against applying for the fund this time.

After the meeting, the US envoy told reporters that she had assured the minister of her country's assistance for Bangladesh's economic development, and discussed options of further cooperation between the two countries.

On the meeting with the Chinese envoy, Muhith said China has also expressed interest to offer more soft loans to Bangladesh.

The rate of interest on the soft loans will be below 2 percent and the repayment period will be 15 years, with a good grace period, he said.

However, issues like down-payment for the soft loans and financial agreement have to be preceded by a commercial agreement, he said.

Mingqiang assured Muhith of communicating Bangladesh's concerns to his country. 

However, China is no more interested in building the Sonadia deep-sea port as the Japanese have already moved to assist Bangladesh in building a similar port.

“We do not want unnecessary competition on the deep sea port issue,” Mingqiang said.