Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh is concerned in maintaining close ties with everyone, whoever come forward to support its development, reports UNB.
“We’re close to everyone – China, USA and India. Those who support our development, we’re with them,” she said in an interview with CNN, aired on Tuesday.
She made the remark when CNN’s senior journalist Richard Quest mentioned that the US believes and is concerned that Bangladesh is “getting too close” to China.
Sheikh Hasina said China is one of Bangladesh’s development partners. China is investing here and they are involved in construction. “That’s all. We’re not dependent on anyone,” she said.
When her attention was drawn to Bangladesh’s stance on the so-called “Chinese debt trap”, the PM said, “We’re extremely cautious when taking loans or undertaking development project.”
She said Bangladesh takes majority of loans from different institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. “When it comes to Chinese loans, it’s not the matter like Sri Lanka or others,” she said.
The PM said her government always considers the returns and the benefits before undertaking any development project.
“Another thing is that we always try our best to develop our country with our own resources. We don’t take unnecessary loans or big projects. We always consider from which project we can get returns and to what extent people will be benefited,” she said.
The first episode of the interview was aired in the early hours of Tuesday and the second episode will be aired soon.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
