POBNEWS24, Dhaka Aug 16, 2022 : In a letter to the Financial Times on August 12, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Finance made clarifications on a distorted report published by Financial times (FT) on Bangladesh’s Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal’s remarks concerning the Belt and Road cooperation and developing countries’ debt to China.
Minister Kamal made clear that any country should think twice when taking loans from other countries and he was not targeting China.
According to a press release of China Embassy in Dhaka, Wang Wenbin: “I have seen the clarification made by Finance Minister Mustafa Kamal on the misquotes. It shows the mutual trust between China and Bangladesh. As we often say, facts speak louder than words and truth will always prevail. For fiscal year 2021, the country’s debt to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank accounted for 59% of its total external debt while debt to China only accounted for 7%. As the Bangladeshi side noted in the letter to Financial Times, “Bangladesh owes approximately $4bn to China — a trifling amount compared with Bangladesh’s gross domestic product of $416bn, and its external debt of $51bn”.
Last I want to stress once again that as the largest developing country, China always stands firmly with fellow developing countries. And we always consult, carry out and benefit together when it comes to Belt and Road cooperation.
Over the years, in light of the needs of developing countries, China has provided substantial sums of low-interest-rate and long-maturity concessional loans to support their efforts to improve infrastructure and people’s wellbeing. These countries owe far less debt to China than to international capital markets and multilateral financial institutions dominated by Western countries.
Facts have proven time and again that the so-called “China’s debt trap” is nothing but a narrative trap designed with ill intentions to disrupt and undermine China’s mutually beneficial cooperation with other developing countries. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has received wide support and seen active participation of many developing countries.
Our fruitful cooperation keeps delivering tangible benefits to people in all countries. Facts are the most powerful rebuttal to any disinformation designed to tarnish the BRI and China’s cooperation with fellow developing countries.
China is ready to continue to work with the developing world to implement the Global Development Initiative, pursue high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and deliver more benefits of common development to people in all countries more effectively and equitably, the release added.
China calls on the relevant media to uphold the principle of impartiality, fairness, truthfulness and accuracy, fully respect facts, faithfully reflect the voice of developing countries and do more thing that are conducive to solidarity, cooperation and win-win results among all countries, rather than the opposite.
