Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain on Monday afternoon left Dhaka for China to discuss a wide range of issues and ways to strengthen Dhaka's economic partnership with Beijing.
China has already invited Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus to pay an official visit to Beijing in March this year with Dhaka seeing it positively, said a diplomatic source.
Bangladesh and China are preparing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in 2025.
Adviser Hossain is paying the visit at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in what is described as “very important first bilateral visit” after the formation of the interim government led by Nobel Laureate Dr Yunus in August last year.
He will have engagements with Chinese officials on January 21-23. He is scheduled to return home on January 24.
Bangladesh is likely to request China to lower loan interest rates, extend repayment terms by 30 years and waive commitment fees to bolster economic cooperation.
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The issues along with budget support will come up in a big way during Hossain's visit.
"...all economic issues will come up for discussion. Some issues are very important. Bangladesh's trade and economic relations with China are very important," the adviser said while talking to reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last week.
He said they will discuss budgetary support, explore China's assistance, expedite loan disbursement for Bangladeshi projects, and seek a full withdrawal of the commitment fee.
A commitment fee in China is a charge made by a lender to a borrower for keeping a line of credit available.
Bangladesh sees Hossain’s maiden bilateral visit to China as a “great opportunity” to further strengthen and deepen the bilateral relations with Beijing giving an outline for the future cooperation.
Asked about the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the adviser said there are some issues that will continue to be discussed with a positive approach and noted that Bangladesh’s relationship with China is not just government-specific.
The GDI is a multilateral development initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2021.