China assures easing visa, trade concessions

China has assured Bangladesh of easing visa procedures for tourists and particularly business persons and trade concessions.
The assurance came at a bilateral consultation held between Bangladeshi delegation led by foreign secretary Md Shahidul Haque and Chinese delegation led by Chinese vice-foreign minister Liu Zhenmin in China on Wednesday, said a release.
The new Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, termed Dhaka-Beijing bilateral relations ‘closer comprehensive partnership of cooperation’ and assured Bangladesh of all possible support for furthering the relations.
Wang Yi made the remarks when he received the visiting Bangladesh delegation at his office on Wednesday.
He termed Bangladesh a ‘big’ country in South Asia and expressed their keenness in engaging with Bangladesh.
Wang expressed his desire to see more regional initiatives like that of Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar economic corridor in the region.
Appreciating Bangladesh for its ‘One China Policy’, he emphasised high level bilateral visits at the political, parliamentarian and government levels.
At the bilateral consultation, Both sides had discussed necessity of economic cooperation, connectivity, cooperation on agriculture and water resources, people to people contact and cultural exchanges, defence and security cooperation and consular affairs.
On defence, the Chinese side expressed their willingness to invite the service chiefs of armed forces for visiting China.
Shahidul Haque requested China to take appropriate measures to ease the visa procedures for Bangladeshis.
The Chinese side readily agreed to Bangladesh’s proposal to discuss a comprehensive visa agreement at an early date and offered to host a delegation from Bangladesh to sort out all consular issues to ease the visa procedure.
The two sides expressed satisfaction on the fact that trade between Bangladesh and China had surpassed eight billion US dollar in 2012 with an annual increase by 17 per cent in the previous year.
The Chinese side informed that China was considering to expand the preferential trading arrangement which would cover almost 95 per cent of Bangladeshi goods as well as to discuss the issue of rules of origin to reduce the trade imbalance.
The foreign secretary handed over a list of 17 products for duty free access to China while meeting the vice-minister of the ministry of commerce.
The meeting of Bangladesh-China joint economic commission is expected to be held in Dhaka in September.