Nadira Karim has no memory of her mother who died when she was just one-year-old. Brought up by her paternal grandmother, Nadira later learned that her mother died for want of treatment. That’s why Nadira dreamt of becoming a doctor to help the poor so that no one suffers the same fate of her mother.
But after graduating from school, fate played a cruel trick with her when she was unable private classes to prepare for medical exam due to her financial situation. She sank into depression when she saw her friends take coaching for the test.
Then the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) came to her rescue. Her unemployed father found a job with Karnaphuli Multi-Channel Tunnel Project, a BRI project in Chittagong, the commercial capital of Bangladesh. As a result, her father became financially secure and Nadira enrolled in the Chittagong Medical College where she is now a second-year student on the way to becoming a doctor.
Nadira’s story is just one example of how the BRI is changing the lives of ordinary people of Bangladesh.
In addition, the BRI has emerged as a major game changer for the South Asian nation by profoundly contributing to its economy since the country formally joined the initiative during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Bangladesh visit in 2016 when the two nations signed several agreements worth $21.5 billion.
Several projects have already been implemented and people of Bangladesh are reaping dividends of those BRI projects. The Bangladesh Power System Upgrade and Expansion Project is a vivid example how the BRI is playing a role in improving livelihood of people of the country. This project has benefited more than seven million Bangladeshis by helping provide electricity connections to over 2.5 million rural people.
Besides, China is now implementing $10 billion worth of infrastructure projects in Bangladesh including the Chinese Economic and Industrial Zone, Payra Power Plant, the eighth China Bangladesh Friendship Bridge, and the International Exhibition Center. Every project has created a huge number of jobs, bringing about enormous socio-economic development of Bangladesh.
The BRI has also brought good news to Bangladeshi students who aspire to receive quality education in China. Under the initiative, China has increased its scholarship number to 8,000 for Bangladesh. This great opportunity has been contributing to increasing remittance inflows to Bangladesh, which is the country’s second-largest source of foreign currency earnings, by producing skilled human resources.
For the coming days, the BRI is also considered an effective tool for Bangladesh to achieve its goal to be a developed country by 2041 to mark its 70th independence anniversary. In order to reach its goal, the South Asian country has to raise and maintain its GDP growth to more than 8 per cent in the coming years which is possible only by achieving remarkable progress in its infrastructure, exports, remittance and some other major sectors. The BRI can help Bangladesh in infrastructure development, diversifying export goods and markets and producing skilled human resources to explore new remittance markets around the partner countries of the initiative. Many Bangladeshis do believe that the BRI has brought great opportunities to their country to become a developed nation. (This article is originally published in China Daily website. Here it is re-edited. The author is the diplomatic correspondent of the Daily Sun, a leading broadsheet national English daily of Bangladesh. He is currently receiving training in journalism in Beijing as a fellow of the China International Press Communication Center (CIPCC) Programme 2019.)