Full text of Chinese president's signed article in Bangladeshi newspapers

The leading Bangladeshi newspapersof The Daily Star and Prothom Alo on Friday carried a signedarticle by Chinese President Xi Jinping on the occasion of hisstate visit to the country.

The full text of the article is asfollows.

China-Bangladesh Cooperation WillBear Golden Fruits

By H.E. Xi Jinping, President ofthe People's Republic of China

At the kind invitation of PresidentAbdul Hamid, I will pay a state visit to the beautiful country ofBangladesh in this golden harvest season of autumn. It has been sixyears since my last trip to this country and I look forward tomeeting friends both old and new and discussing with them how Chinaand Bangladesh can work together for common development.

Bangladesh is a fascinating andpromising land. It is where the Padma, Jamuna and Meghna riversflow into the sea. Its vast expanse of fertile fields whichnormally have the color of emerald green become a sea of goldenyellow at the time of harvest. Endowed with rich natural resources,this land is home to a hard-working and talented nation and atime-honored and splendid culture. In fact, famous poetRabindranath Tagore wrote many of his most notable works inBengali.

Bangladesh is a land filled withhope. Since its independence, Bangladesh has come a long way. Withstrenuous efforts, it has started from scratch and successfully metthe livelihood needs of its 160 million population, contributingsignificantly to global poverty reduction. In recent years, byseizing the opportunities of economic globalization and focusing onreform and development, Bangladesh has kept its economy growing atabove 6 percent and made steady progress in industrialization andurbanization. Bangladesh is well on track to achieve Vision 2021and become a middle-income country.

The people of China and Bangladeshhave been good neighbors and friends since ancient times. Storiesof our friendship and exchange witnessed by the Southern Silk Roadand the Maritime Silk Road throughout the millennia are still beingtold today. Eminent Chinese monks Faxian and Xuanzang travelledwest for Buddhist scriptures. Atisa Dipankara Shrijnana, a Bengalireligious master, spread Buddhism in China. They were the pioneersof our cultural exchange. Famous navigator Zheng He of the MingDynasty visited Bengal twice. According to his description, "Thisis a richly endowed and teeming land with lovely people and fertilefields." Believed by the Chinese then to be a qilin (an auspiciousmythical animal), the giraffe that the Bengali king gave to theMing emperor brought much excitement to the court and generalpublic in China.

More recently, having enduredrepeated wars and incessant poverty, our peoples fought tenaciouslyfor national independence and liberation, strove for developmentand progress and forged unshakable trust and friendship in theprocess. In the 1950s and 1960s, Premier Zhou Enlai visited Dhakatwice and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman visited China twice.The seed of friendship was thus planted by the veteran leaders ofour two countries long before diplomatic ties were established. Ithas now grown into a giant tree with deep roots and richfruits.

As a Chinese proverb goes, "Onlyfriendships built on sincerity can last long." Since theestablishment of diplomatic ties 41 years ago, China has alwaysregarded Bangladesh as its true friend and partner for development.China highly values its relations with Bangladesh. We firmlysupport each other on issues concerning each other's coreinterests. Successive Chinese and Bangladeshi leaders havemaintained sound interactions at bilateral and multilateral eventsand provided positive guidance to the growth of bilateralrelations. In September 2015, I had a good meeting with PrimeMinister Sheikh Hasina in New York on the margins of the UN summitsmarking its 70th anniversary. We agreed to expand cooperationacross the board, jointly advance the Belt and Road Initiative andthe BCIM Economic Corridor and take bilateral relations to a newheight.

With the unremitting efforts of ourtwo peoples, China-Bangladesh practical cooperation has producedfruitful results. China is now the largest trading partner ofBangladesh and Bangladesh China's third largest trading partner andthird largest project contract market in South Asia. Bilateraltrade soared from 900 million U.S. dollars in 2000 to 14.7 billionU.S. dollars in 2015, registering an annual increase of around 20percent. Jute products from Bangladesh are increasingly popular inthe Chinese market. Chinese companies have built the ShahjalalFertilizer Factory, the most advanced modern fertilizer plant inBangladesh, the Bangabandhu International Conference Center, thelargest one in Bangladesh, and are now building the Padma Bridge,the dream bridge of the Bangladeshi people. As a matter of fact,one can find Chinese and Bangladeshi people together makingtireless and pioneering efforts in many sectors of Bangladesh suchas transportation, electricity, energy and telecommunications. Oneof the first batch of projects financed by loans from theChina-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is the PowerGrid Network Strengthening Project in Bangladesh, which willbenefit tens of millions of rural residents. We have also madesignificant progress in our cooperation in defense, security,education, culture and other fields.

Both China and Bangladesh aredeveloping countries with a huge population. Our nationalconditions have a lot in common and our development goals arewell-aligned. The "Sonar Bangla" dream of national strength andprosperity is in perfect harmony with the Chinese dream of greatnational renewal. The Belt and Road Initiative put forward by Chinaheralds new opportunities for win-win cooperation between our twocountries. Bangladesh, with its favorable geographic location andhuge population, market potential and cooperation space, is anindispensable partner for China to advance the Belt and RoadInitiative and production capacity cooperation in South Asia andthe Indian Ocean region.

During this visit, I look forwardto working with Bangladeshi leaders to further grow our bilateralrelations, identify key areas of cooperation, advance exchanges andcooperation in various fields and bring China-Bangladesh relationsto a new level.

-- We need to step up politicalcommunication for greater mutual trust. Bangabandhu Sheikh MujiburRahman put forward the vision of "friendship to all, malice tonone." China will always be Bangladesh's trustworthy friend andpartner. Our two sides should, from a strategic perspective,strengthen high-level exchanges and top-level planning, cementtraditional friendship and political ties, set more ambitious goalsand build a better framework for our bilateral relations and lay asolid foundation for lasting friendship and all-roundcooperation.

-- We need to align our developmentstrategies for win-win outcomes. There is huge potential andcomplementarity in our cooperation. China is ready to synergize its13th Five-Year Plan with Bangladesh's Seventh Five-Year Plan with aview to leveraging our respective comparative advantages,increasing economic exchanges and trade, building key projects inareas such as infrastructure, production capacity, energy,electricity, transportation, information, telecommunications andagriculture, strengthening practical cooperation under the BCIMEconomic Corridor and delivering to our people tangible benefits ofour cooperation.

-- We need to enhance South-Southcooperation for common development. China stands ready to offermore assistance and support to Bangladesh to the best of itscapability, enhance mutual assistance and cooperation withBangladesh in areas such as disaster prevention and mitigation,vocational training, medical and health care services, climatechange and women and children, work together with Bangladesh toimplement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and makeChina-Bangladesh cooperation a fine example of South-Southcooperation.

-- We need to build a bridge offriendship for greater affinity and mutual understanding.Friendship between our two countries dates back a long time. Infact, both the Chinese and Bangladeshi people drink water from thesame river, known as Yarlung Zangbo River in China and Jamuna Riverin Bangladesh. China will work to increase exchanges and mutuallearning between the Chinese and Bangladeshi culture so as to bringour people closer to each other. It is important that we facilitateexchanges and cooperation in areas such as education, media, thinktanks, tourism and youth and at the sub-national level so that moreof our people will be mobilized to support closer ties betweenChina and Bangladesh.

I believe with the joint efforts ofour two peoples, China-Bangladesh cooperation will bear even moregolden fruits. Endi