22 June 2026, 00:00 AM
Rejaul Karim Byron
Jagaran Chakma
When Xi Jinping landed in Dhaka in October 2016, it was the first visit by a Chinese president in three decades, and Beijing marked it with pledges worth around $20 billion in loans and assistance over the following four years.
At the time, it was the largest commitment any single country had made to Bangladesh, and it came as China looked to deepen its presence in South Asia while India did the same. Nearly ten years later, about half of that money has entered Bangladesh’s foreign aid pipeline.Under the initial agreement signed during Xi’s visit, China was expected to finance 27 projects. But as of June last year, Bangladesh and China had signed loan agreements for 13 projects worth $8.89 billion.Of that amount, about $5.53 billion has been disbursed, according to finance ministry data. Dhaka has already begun repaying loans for 10 of those projects, with repayments reaching $483 million by June 2025.While economists say signing a memorandum of understanding does not guarantee project implementation, finance ministry officials blamed the fund slowdown on the Covid pandemic, lengthy approval procedures in both countries and Beijing’s increasingly cautious approach to lending amid a foreign exchange crisis in Bangladesh.Of the total $8.89 billion in signed loans, China provided financing in both US dollars and Chinese yuan (RMB). According to official data, RMB 15.16 billion, equivalent to $2.24 billion, was denominated in yuan, while the remaining $6.65 billion was provided in US dollars.Against this backdrop, Dhaka is expected to seek Beijing’s financing for three major projects during Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s upcoming visit to China.
