News

After a meeting on 30 January 2014, the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka, Pankaj Saran and Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed stated that Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar connectivity, known as BCIM economic corridor is in the final stage. In order to create the regional economic forum, telecommunication, rail, road, water and power connectivity will be established amongst the countries. Pankaj Saran expects that the BCIM will get a definite shape within two months.

Comment

BCIM will ensure that Bangladesh becomes captive market of Indian and Chinese products and services. Indian and Chinese dominance in trade and investment will lead to weaker economic base for Bangladesh. Indian political ambition regarding Bangladesh is well known. Eventually, through BCIM, India will not only dominate economically, but also will have a permanent political stranglehold on Bangladesh.

According to Saran, India exported USD 4.18 billion to Bangladesh while Bangladesh has exported only 561 million USD worth of goods to India in 2013. This official statistics shows 7.5 times higher trade in favour of India. But everyone knows that the informal and illegal border trade benefiting India is much higher. Successive governments of Bangladesh have opened up the economy for Indian products while India has imposed various types of trade barriers resulting in low Bangladeshi exports. With the implementation of BCIM, the trade gap will only increase in favour of India. Over the years, India has also sought investment opportunities in key sectors like infrastructure, steel and energy. Now, Pankaj suggested Indian investments in Bangladesh to reduce the gap.

On the other hand, Bangladesh's export to China stood at 458 million USD while import from China was 6.32 billion USD in 2013. Import from China is nearly 14 times higher than export to China. China is already involved in Bangladesh in various sectors like infrastructure development, energy and mining. Though Chinese political ambition in Bangladesh is not very clear, it is understood that China wants access to Bay of Bengal for strategic reasons.

China and India are the first and second sourcing country for Bangladesh, respectively. They have more than 30% share of total imports in Bangladesh. With the implementation of BCIM, imports from these two countries will only increase at the cost of our economy as selling cost of their products will be lower due to improved infrastructure. However, the BCIM economic corridor should not be seen as an economic issue only, nor should it be analyzed from the point of view of benefit. Through the so-called connectivity, Bangladesh will become more vulnerable in terms of security. Using the water-road-rail connectivity, India will want to increase the grip over her troubled north east zone. Connectivity with Bangladesh will give India the golden opportunity to move its security personnel and equipments through the country. Easy trade routes will also make easier troops movement towards Bangladesh from both India and China. In this regard, India's strategic gain is immense due to its proximity to Bangladesh compared to any other country and shared borders. On the other hand, Chinese access to Bay of Bengal will propel USA to have permanent presence in the region.

Weak and corrupt leaders of Bangladesh have already given up to the whims of India, China and USA. These imperialist countries are moving ahead to dominate the Ummah in Bangladesh according to their own vision and plan regarding the world and the region. It is not befitting for the noble Ummah to remain silent and accept plans of the Kafir-Mushrik states. Only Islam provides alternative vision of ruling the world with Qur'an and Sunnah. We must demand and establish the Khilafah "Caliphate", the only ruling system given by Allah (swt) to rule mankind.

Written for The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Muhammad Raiyan Hasan
Member of Hizb ut Tahrir in Bangladesh