He was delivering the keynote address at a seminar, titled “Debt Trap Diplomacy & Regional Threat’ organised by The Asian Age at a city hotel on Friday.
Dr Benkin stated, “Bangladesh saw a jaw-dropping 7.86 percent GDP growth last year and it is expected that GDP will grow a record-setting 8.13 percent this fiscal year. It will soon graduate from Least Developed Country (LDC) status. But the country should be careful about getting involved with ambitious mega projects like China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative as it may ultimately become a trap.”
Syed Badrul Ahsan, Editor-in-Charge of The Asian Age, delivered the welcome speech at the program, which was moderated by The Asian Age Advisory Editor Major General (Retd) M Shamim Chowdhury.
Syed Marghub Murshed, Chairperson, Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO) and former secretary, agreed that third world countries like Bangladesh should be cautious about getting involved in such mega projects as OBOR.
Professor Ataur Rahman, Chairman, Centre for Governance Studies (CGS), was critical of the position spelt out in the keynote paper. “We need huge foreign investments in infrastructure sector,” he noted and added that China’s interest in investing in Bangladesh would help the country implement its development plans.
On the other hand, he said, the level of US investment in Bangladesh is little. “For this reason, we shouldn’t avoid China. And of course we have to ensure a proper utilization of loans from our development partners,” he asserted.
BM Mozammel Haque, organizing secretary of the ruling Awami League, in his comments said, “We need assistance from our development partners with a view to advancing our development activities. Though China opposed Bangladesh during the Liberation War in 1971, it is now providing assistance to Dhaka in the development of its infrastructure.”
“We want to make a prosperous Bangladesh with assistance from all development partners,” he further said.
Among others who spoke at the seminar were Abdul Haque, Honorary Consul of Djibouti in Dhaka, Mahmudul Islam Chowdhury, former Mayor of Chittagong City Corporation, Faruk Ahmed, President, Bangladesh Journalists' Foundation for Consumers & Investors (BJFCI), Sanjida Farhana, Lecturer, Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP), and Rafia Rowshan Khan, Program Associate, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
Delivering the vote of thanks, M Shoeb Chowdhury, Chairman of The Asian Age editorial board, said, “When we were struggling against the Pakistani occupation forces, the US and China opposed Bangladesh. But now both countries are providing us with assistance in order for us to carry out our development works.”
He stated, however, that Bangladesh needs to be wary about accepting big loans for mega projects from China given the experience of such countries as Sri Lanka, Pakistan or Malaysia.