{"id":119614,"date":"2021-10-26T23:51:31","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T05:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=119614"},"modified":"2021-10-26T16:45:54","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T23:45:54","slug":"sri-lanka-including-bangladesh-can-benefit-from-cpec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/10\/26\/sri-lanka-including-bangladesh-can-benefit-from-cpec\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka including Bangladesh can benefit from CPEC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pathik Hasan<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Pakistan,\nBangladesh and Sri Lanka are both South Asian countries. As an island county in\nSouth East Asia, Sri Lanka has been utilizing some facilities in the sector of\ninternational maritime trade, commerce. Sri Lanka is known as a maritime hub in\nSouth Asia. Its Colombo port is very famous in the world map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nthe other hands, Bangladesh has some geo-strategic significance that\u2019s why\nChina is interested in investing in Bangladesh. Now Western powers want to see\nBangladesh as a strategic partner in the Indo-Pacific region. But Bangladesh\nhas joined China run BRI in 2017. Its location across the Bay of Bengal gives a\nstrategic position in South East and South Asia. Bangladesh can utilize this properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nPakistan is the only South Asian country who is showing its full-scale\nstrategic significance to the world leaders at this moment. Its foreign policy has\nshifted towards geo-economic from Geo strategy. CPEC and Gwadar port has added extra\nvalue in this regard. China run Gwadar port and CPEC has increased more\nconfidence between China and Pakistan to prove that they are really all\nweather ally\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka has some advantageous position in South Asia in case of maritime\nconnectivity. It is also known as a maritime hub in South Asia. Sri Lankan\nHambantota port is a hot cake in international politics. Sri Lanka has leased\nit to China for 99 years. There is some debate regarding this. But that is\nanother issue. However, China is more interested to connect Sri Lanka with its\nconnectivity project Belt and Road Initiative\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis very pertinent to mention that Sri Lanka and Pakistan are both the active\nmembers of China \u2018BRI\u2019 project. Sri Lankan Hambantota and Colombo ports are\nconsidered as epic center and hub of China\u2019s BRI project in South Asia. Sri\nLankan ports can be used a regional maritime hub between South Asia, South East\nAsia, Central Asia and Middle East. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri\nLanka and Pakistan can work together in the sector of bilateral trade, investment,\nscience and technology, and culture through enhancing connectivity. Sri Lanka\nis the one of the top most business partner of Pakistan in South Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pak\nPM Imran Khan visited Sri Lanka in February 23-24, 2021. During his visit to\nSri Lanka, Mr. Khan focused on Pakistan\u2019s connectivity with Sri Lanka. Sri\nLanka has historical connection with Pakistan. Sri Lankan Colombo port\u2019s\nconnection with Pakistan\u2019s Karachi port is well to Known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan\nis the part of the Chinese president\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative through its\nflagship China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, Sri Lanka could\nbenefit from it through enhanced connectivity up to the Central Asian states.\nBi lateral connectivity would increase the bilateral trade between the two\nstates. Basically, Sri Lanka and Pakistan would benefit mutually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka can ensure its maximum interest\nfrom using of Gwadar Port for warehousing to facilitate trade with Afghanistan,\nPakistan, Western and Central China, Central Asian Republics and Middle East.\nGwadar is connected with CPEC. Ultimately, Sri Lanka can easily export to and\nimport from the markets of above-mentioned states. Sri Lankan can to use Gwadar\nPort’s gateway for export to Afghanistan and then Uzbekistan and from there to\nentire Central Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the visit of Sri Lanka, Imran\ncommented that Pakistan is allocating land to Uzbekistan for warehousing and\nexport, the same facility can also be provided to Sri Lanka. (February 26, The\nBusiness Recorder)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On\nthe other hands, according to a leading Bangladesh daily (Daily Observer),\nBangladesh can benefit from using Pakistan\u2019s Gwadar port. The Daily Observer\npublished an article titled Bangladesh can benefit from Gwadar port\u2019 on\nSeptember 30, 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan\u2019s\nanother daily Pakistan Today\u201d has also published an article titled \u2018Why\nBangladesh should use Pakistan\u2019s Gwadar port?\u201d on September 26, 2021. Leading\nPakistani daily Pak Observer\u201d has also republished the article urging the\nBangladesh and Sri Lanka both to utilize the Pakistan\u2019s Gwadar port for\nensuring their business interest. It is pertinent to mention that Sri Lanka\u2019s\nanother online portal Lanka Web and India\u2019s Maritime Gateway\u2019 republished the\narticle on September 26,qmd 27 respectively with referencing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nThat is not issue of my article. My point is here that the main theme of the\narticle is connectivity amongst Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The author\nof the article shows that If Bangladesh\u2019s Chittagong, Payra, Mangla ports can\nbe connected with Pakistan\u2019s Gwadar ports including Karachi port, Port Qasim\nand Keti bandar via Sri Lankan Colombo port and Hambantota port, Bangladesh,\nSri Lanka, Pakistan would benefit trilaterally. Regional connectivity would\nensure their own maximum business interest. The millions of people in the\nregion could benefit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s Tea, apparel, machinery and\nBangladesh apparel, mangoes, medicines, potatoes can be easily exported to the\nabove-mentioned markets. On the other hands, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka both\nimport goods such as cotton from Pakistan, Central Asian States, Western and\nCentral China even Russia. But a holistic trilateral effort is much needed in\nthis regard. If Sri Lanka and Bangladesh use CPEC, they can take part in the\ndevelopment process in Afghanistan with Pakistan, China, Russia, Iran. SAARC\nmay be revived through these activities. Revival of SAARC is must at the\npresent context or scenario of South Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan\u2019s\nGwadar port could benefit Sri Lanka in this regard. If Sri Lanka starts to use\nGwdar port, its export to Central Asian states, Central and Western China and\nPakistan would increase. Sri Lanka\u2019s connection with Pakistan\u2019s CPEC project\nwould accelerate the regional connectivity more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nbilateral connection between two states would boost up. Sri Lanka and Pakistan\ncan increase their joint bilateral efforts to counter terrorism, tackle\ncovid-19 etc. Terrorism has been harming the economic interests of both states.\nSri Lanka saw Easter Church attack in 2019. Pakistan has been facing the\nchallenging from TTP threat. If Pakistan and Sri Lanka increase the\nconnectivity through utilizing of these connectivity project, bilateral efforts\nof tackling and countering terrorism would ensure automatically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tourism\nis another sector. Pakistan has many historical Buddhist sites such as ancient\ncivilizations of Gandhara, Takhsila. Sri Lanka people can easily visit these\nhistorical holy sites if connectivity between two states would build. On the\nother hands, Sri Lanka has historical places for Muslims like Adam peak.\nPakistani Muslims will be able to more to visit the holy site. But bi-lateral\nconnection is must for ensuring that. CPEC is a regional connectivity project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\na regional state, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh each can and should join the project\nto exploit the benefit. This trilateral connection would boost up the business\nconnection, people-to-people connection. The public diplomacy, economic\ndiplomacy, cricket diplomacy would be strong more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pathik Hasan is a Dhaka based human rights activist, analyst\nand columnist.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pathik Hasan Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are both South Asian countries. As an island county in South East Asia, Sri Lanka has been utilizing some facilities in the sector of international maritime trade, commerce. Sri Lanka is known as a maritime hub in South Asia. Its Colombo port is very famous in the world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-md-pathik-hasan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}