[🇧🇩] Bangladesh's Look East Foreign Policy and ASEAN.

[Saif]

The Daily Star Web Edition Vol. 5 Num 447

archive.thedailystar.net

Dhaka sees Beijing as core of 'Look East' policy
Khaleda tells Chinese weekly
Bss, Dhaka

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has said Bangladesh and China are now witnessing a golden era in their relations and there has been unprecedented progress in the bilateral ties at every level.

In an interview with the leading Chinese weekly, Beijing Review, prior to her mid-August visit to China, Khaleda said keeping an excellent relationship with China is at the core of her government's 'Look East' policy, which aims to expand and deepen ties with the neighbours in the east.

"I firmly believe that we can draw upon the dynamics and synergies of our relations for the benefit of our two countries and two peoples," she said in her written interview, which the paper published on August 25.

In the two-page extensive interview which the paper titled 'Bangladesh Looks East', she also said that the UN is the only global body representing the world community.

Khaleda said she was optimistic that her visit to Beijing would provide a wonderful opportunity to exchange views with the Chinese leadership, reinforce the constructive partnership, and further deepen the trust and understanding that mark relations between the two friendly countries.

The prime minister referred to the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with China this year, which, she said, had flourished by leaps and bounds over the past three decades.

"The occasion is being celebrated as China-Bangladesh Friendship Year. During the year, we have had some very important visits at the political level---the visit of Premier Wen to Dhaka and my visit to Beijing. The visits have been undertaken to mark the 30th anniversary celebrations," she said.

Khaleda said the depth of relationship is quite evident in the frequent exchange of high-level visits between the two countries.

"Prime Minister Wen visited Bangladesh in April and I am in China within four months of that visit. In fact, this is my third trip to China since I assumed office in October 2001. This is a testimony to the importance that we both attach to our ties," she said.

Sharing her views on Sino-Bangladeshi relations and international affairs with the Beijing Review, the prime minister described China as "not only a very close friend, but also a very important partner in our national development endeavour."

"Since the establishment of diplomatic relations three decades ago, ties between our two countries have grown from strength to strength in all spheres."

She said, "Our relationship is based on the solid foundations of a close partnership, which found expression in the comprehensive partnership of cooperation that we entered into during Premier Wen's visit to Bangladesh in April," she said.

She said the two countries share common perceptions on peace, stability and development of their peoples and countries. Both have commonality of interests on regional and global issues and work very closely in the UN and other international and regional forums.

Bangladesh, she said, believes in the One-China Policy and supports the peaceful reunification of Taiwan with the mainland.

 

[Saif]

An old article about Khaleda Zia's Look East policy.

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Bangladesh looks east

Bangladesh looks east

Khaleda Zia (L) with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
Khaleda Zia recently visited her Thai counterpart
By Waliur Rahman
BBC reporter in Dhaka


Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has said her government is now looking to the East as part of a new foreign policy focus. The doors are open to us for west, east, north and south.

She says this is for the benefit of the country and its people, but she insists her government will maintain good relations with its neighbours and Western countries.

Analysts say the announcement is the clearest signal yet that her year-old administration wants to reduce Dhaka's dependence on traditional allies like India.

The announcement came days after Mrs Zia's back-to-back visits to Thailand and China, and a visit to Dhaka by the Burmese ruler, General Than Shwe, last month.

Government leaders have been talking for some time about a "Look East" foreign policy in pursuit of trade with the countries of eastern and south-eastern Asia.

'Indian dominance'

Dhaka also wants Bangladesh to become a dialogue partner of the Asean (Association of South-East Asian Nations) regional forum.

Khaleda Zia told a gathering in Dhaka that her government was marching towards the East because "it would bring good for us at this moment".

"The doors are open to us for west, east, north and south," she said on Thursday.

"We will strengthen relations with the countries from which the country and people will derive more benefits."

Mrs Zia insists on a desire to maintain good relations with all countries, but analysts say the "Look East" policy is directed against India's dominance of South Asian regional politics.

Frustration

This became clear when she accused her predecessor, Sheikh Hasina, of pursuing a subservient foreign policy dictated by a particular country.

She did not name the country, but analysts say she was referring to India.

They say Dhaka will try to further improve relations with Western countries because they are its principal markets and aid donors.

The "Look East" policy, says analyst CR Abrar, is a result of Dhaka's frustration over the slow progress in the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) compared to the success of other regional bodies.

Continued tension between India and Pakistan has stalled Saarc's activities.

Trade deficit

"Also, a series of accusations from the top Indian leadership that Bangladesh is a safe haven for Islamic extremists has angered the present government," said Mr Abrar, a professor at Dhaka University.

But he says that Dhaka is perhaps more concerned over Delhi's unwillingness to reduce Bangladesh's trade deficit, which has now crossed $1bn.

He said several pleas by the Bangladesh Government in this regard have so far been largely ignored by India.

Even the Indian business community's suggestion that Delhi offer Dhaka some trade concessions have changed nothing, he said.

However, Foreign Minister Morshed Khan appeared to question that assumption.

"We have very good ties with India, despite occasional irritants," he said. "And we look forward to solid ties with all members of the Saarc."

 

[Bilal9]

In the article below the writer did not mention that the 'Look East' policy of Bangladesh was the brainchild of Khaleda Zia. Sheikh Hasina has just one policy and that is 'Look India' policy.

The 'look east' policy of Bangladesh

The recent visit of the prime minister of Bangladesh to Japan and China if carefully nurtured opens up huge development opportunities for Bangladesh that can materially affect the long-term welfare of its population.

www.thedailystar.net

The 'look east' policy of Bangladesh​

The recent visit of the prime minister of Bangladesh to Japan and China if carefully nurtured opens up huge development opportunities for Bangladesh that can materially affect the long-term welfare of its population. This requires the government to develop a sound look east economic cooperation policy that contains the following four pillars: (a) trade expansion, (b) expansion of foreign private investment in Bangladesh, (c) regional connectivity and other infrastructure connections; and (d) modernising the infrastructure of Bangladesh through high visibility infrastructure projects.

The focus of the look east policy would largely be on China, Japan and Korea but I believe that Myanmar should be included because of its geographical location. The remainder of this note develops the rationale for this policy.

The global economy has been transforming substantially with the rapid growth in income and exports in China and Korea, especially China, over the past few decades. In 2012 China, Korea and Japan (CKJ) together accounted for 21 percent of total global gross national income (GNI) in nominal dollar terms based on the World Bank's Atlas method.

This compares with 23 percent for USA and 18 percent for the European Union (EU). If the purchasing power parity (PPP) method is used, which is a more accurate measure of internally comparable income definition, then the CKJ share grows to 21 percent while the US and EU shares fall to 19 percent and 14 percent respectively implying that the CKJ group of countries constitute the largest economic area in the world.

Indeed, more recent data (September 2014) shows that China's GNI in PPP term now exceeds that in USA, making China the world's largest economy in PPP terms.

Commensurate with its growing global presence in income terms, trade flows have also been increasing. In 2012, CKJ countries exported some $3,522 billion of goods and services as compared with $2,212 billion by USA and $7,339 billion by the EU.

In terms of imports, the values are $3,820 billion by CKJ, $3,306 billion by USA and $8,458 billion by the EU. While the EU is the clear leader in world trade, accounting for 33.3 percent of global imports, at 15 percent the CKJ area imports exceed that of USA (13 percent) by a handsome margin.

Apart from growing income, the CKJ has two other features that stand out from the perspective of a developing economy like Bangladesh. First, the CKJ countries have traditionally achieved large current account surpluses owing to their strong export orientation.

Over time the foreign reserve levels have swelled. With reserves estimated at $3.9 trillion, China sits at the top of the global list of owners of foreign reserves, followed by Japan at number 2 ($1.3 trillion).

With $368 billion, Korea is placed at number 8. These levels of reserves, especially in China and Japan, are unprecedented and speak volumes about the financial strength of these economies.

Second, all CKJ countries are exceptionally well endowed with technical knowledge, design and engineering capabilities in the area of infrastructure development. These capabilities are comparable to those found in USA and the EU.

Combined with surplus foreign resources, these capabilities make the CKJ countries an attractive source of supply of infrastructure projects to developing economies. The infrastructure marvels achieved are obvious to a visitor to these countries. Japan, arguably, also has superb urban planning skills that can be well appreciated when visiting Tokyo.
There is a lot that Bangladesh can learn from this and get expert advice and technical assistance from Japan to re-engineer the Dhaka city layout and transport network, thereby considerably improving the productivity of Dhaka city while also making it more liveable.

The rationale for Bangladesh policy to look east is clear. Bangladesh is eager to diversify and increase its export markets.

It has already successfully penetrated the US and EU markets for its exports but the vast CKJ market remains virtually unexploited.

Along with rapidly growing income in the CKJ area, especially China, that is growing much faster than either in the EU or the USA, the export market opportunities for Bangladesh are immense.

The resource rich CKJ countries are looking for investment opportunities in developing Asia to diversify their investment portfolio. The RMG experience has firmly established Bangladesh's claim to be an attractive destination of these new investments. Armed with abundant supply of labour, the labour cost advantage is a strong plus that could be gainfully employed to attract these investments.

The geographic advantage of Bangladesh in terms of its location as the gateway between Western Asia and Eastern Asia makes it a potentially attractive hub for the transit of trade and commerce between the CKJ countries in the east to the Southern and central Asian countries in the West.

India alone is a huge market. Additionally, the open access of Bangladesh to sea on the Southern borders makes it a natural choice for sea trade and transport regional hub. The related development of infrastructure—rail, roads, sea ports—can be attractive opportunities for infrastructure investment by the CKJ countries.

This gateway used to be the southwestern part of the ancient Silk Route that linked China to the Middle East and Europe. It is amazing that ancient people recognised the value of geography and trading more than we seem do in the 21st century!

Transit related infrastructure needs apart, the overall infrastructure investment requirements of Bangladesh are immense.

The availability of surplus financing in the CKJ countries along with their globally competent infrastructure building capacities makes them a hugely attractive supply source for infrastructure development in Bangladesh.

Along with the supply of urban land, the infrastructure supply has become a binding constraint to accelerate the growth beyond the 6 percent rate for Bangladesh. The look east policy provides a natural and attractive solution to easing the infrastructure constraint.

The suggested focus of the look east policy is well-grounded into the development needs of Bangladesh.

Implementation is another matter. It will not be automatic or simply based on diplomatic gestures.

The high-level political support and signals from the prime minister are no doubt important but implementation for results will require a sound approach, long-term effort and constant monitoring. The development of the look east policy will require a solid implementation framework. Some of the important policy elements of that framework include the following:

(i) A well-thought out land procurement and land development policy for foreign private investment. In that regard, it is especially important to quickly and satisfactorily resolve the current impasse surrounding the land transfer to the Korean EPZ in Chittagong.

(ii) An export promotion strategy for the CKJ areas based on a careful review of markets, products, cost structure, import flows and domestic capabilities. (iii) Exchange of business delegations to explore potential trade and investment opportunities.

(iv) Adoption of turn-key type procurement policies for infrastructure financing to avoid procurement related corruption problems and delays.

The government may face capacity constraint to develop the details of such a policy. But there is substantial experience and capacity in local research institutions to help the government develop this policy.

There might be some sensitive political issues raised by India and USA in view of the China angle. But by adopting a sensible economic approach these concerns can be neutralised.

After all despite all the noise, India and USA are among China's largest trading partners. So, there is no reason why Bangladesh should not decide its own economic cooperation policies in a way that best serves its economic needs and interests based on a sound engagement strategy and implementation capacity.

Sadiq Ahmed is the vice chairman of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh. ​

I agree 100% that Hasina's overture toward ASEAN is inept and incomplete.

If we have to do anything, we should become some part of ASEAN, though we are not physically a part of the South East Asia.

Our entire involvement with SAARC during Hasina's rule has been a time-waster of sorts and has helped Modi become the trade hegemon of the region.

We should have spent more time on ASEAN involvement.

 

[Old School]

I agree 100% that Hasina's overture toward ASEAN is inept and incomplete.

If we have to do anything, we should become some part of ASEAN, though we are not physically a part of the South East Asia.

Our entire involvement with SAARC during Hasina's rule has been a time-waster of sorts and has helped Modi become the trade hegemon of the region.

We should have spent more time on ASEAN involvement.

In fact, the ASEAN countries have more "look West" policies than anyone else. Only in the sub-continent can one get away with such a myopic terminology as "look east."

 

[Saif]

I agree 100% that Hasina's overture toward ASEAN is inept and incomplete.

If we have to do anything, we should become some part of ASEAN, though we are not physically a part of the South East Asia.

Our entire involvement with SAARC during Hasina's rule has been a time-waster of sorts and has helped Modi become the trade hegemon of the region.

We should have spent more time on ASEAN involvement.

With 'Look East' policy we could be a part of rising economic bloc ASEAN and the 2nd largest economic market-- China. A developing country like Bangladesh needs money to take the economic growth to next level and ASEAN and China could be our cash cow to achieve such economic growth that we desire.