Yunnan to play a key role in linking China to S&SE Asia: Bangladeshi expert

On June 13, the 5th China-South and Southeast Asia Think-tank Forum was held in Kunming. Professor Tawfique Haque from Bangladesh gave the keynote speech on how to improve regional water utilization and sharing, which won unanimous approval and appreciation from the attending experts. After the forum, our reporter held an exclusive interview with Professor Tawfique Haque on the prospects for cooperation between China and Bangladesh regarding the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as other hot topics.

Tawfique Haque

Professor Tawfique Haque is from the Faculty of Politics and Social Sciences at North-South University. The institution is one of the first Bangladeshi universities to jointly set up a Confucius Institute with China, and a frontrunner in promoting cultural exchanges between the two countries. Professor Tawfique Haque is well acquainted with China’s culture and political system. As a well-known expert of Chinese issues and the BCIM economic corridor, he has been invited to study and lecture in China many times.

Of all the cities that he has visited, Professor Tawfique likes Kunming the most. Compared to China’s first-tier cities, Kunming features pleasant weather, delicious snacks, moderate prices and easy access to Bangladesh. These are reasons why he has visited Kunming again and again.

Speaking of China-Bangladesh cooperation and the Belt and Road Initiative, Professor Tawfique first thanked China for its strong support of Bangladesh’s development. In particular, he stressed the cooperative agreement signed between the two countries during Chinese President Xi Jumping’s 2016 visit. That agreement is playing an important role in Bangladesh’s economic development. Since its introduction, the Belt and Road Initiative has won support from all involved countries and has achieved great achievements. The bilateral initiative not only showed China’s unremitting efforts as a responsible regional power promoting the common development of neighbouring countries, but also provided new ideas and a new model of external governance for other countries, Professor Tawfique said.

Professor Tawfique believes that one of the keys to the Belt and Road Initiative is connectivity. Land, sea and air transport routes between China and South and Southeast Asian countries, as well as cross-border logistics capacities, determines the success or failure of the construction of the Belt and Road.

Youth labour accounts for the largest proportion of the population in Bangladesh, more than any other country in the world. This means a large amount of cheap labour and a vast consumer market will exist in the next ten to twenty years. However, Bangladesh’s backward transport infrastructure and poor connectivity with neighbouring countries seriously constrains its economic development.

Therefore, Professor Tawfique suggested that China should take advantage of its high-speed rail, road, bridge and railway construction capacity to build Yunnan into a transport and logistics centre for South and Southeast Asia. This, he argued, will further open up South and Southeast Asian markets, enhance connectivity and promote the common development of all countries in the region.

According to Professor Tawfique, there would inevitably be countries that do not understand, doubt or even resist the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative. China should resolve this situation in three ways. First, China should explain its unique development concepts, culture and philosophy to the world. Second, China should attract the participation of other countries by showcasing great preliminary achievements. Third, China should provide a variety of cooperative programmes to adapt to different countries’ cultural backgrounds, interests, demands, all while seeking common ground and accepting differences with other countries in the pursuit of common development.

At the end of the interview, Professor Tawfique said that the friendship between China and Bangladesh is long-standing, and Yunnan has unique geographical and cultural advantages as an outpost in the development of China-Bangladesh relations. He believes that Yunnan can take advantage of its own characteristics and favourable geographical location to further strengthen its connectivity with South and Southeast Asian countries, and provide an example of development for the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative.

By Li Hongfeng and Liu Shichao

Editor: Eric Wang