"Bangladesh and China have given consent to the protocol. Negotiation with Myanmar is going on and we expect quick decision by Myanmar government," said Ashfaqur Rahman, Bangladesh Ambassador to China.

The proposed road link under the protocol will connect Chittagong and Ruili and Kunmin of China via Mandalay of Myanmar. The protocol is subject to approval by the Myanmar government.

Ashfaqur Rahman at a meeting with FBCCI in the city Sunday said the cost of doing business would go down and the bilateral export and import business increase remarkably with the establishment of the 1,700 km road link.

Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) organised the meeting at its conference room with its president Mir Nasir Hossain in the chair.

The ambassador said that geographically Bangladesh is located at a very suitable place from where the country with little efforts can do business with big countries like India and China.“Bangladesh is next to India and China with markets of 1.1 billion and 1.3 billion consumers respectively. Our products can easily capture the markets of western part of China,” he said.

Briefly presenting the status of Chinese economy, the diplomat said China has only two major rivers and they have developed industrial belt surrounding the rivers. “We got over 250 rivers crisscrossing the country, but we could not develop such industrial areas.” Ashfaqur Rahman informed that the foreign exchange reserve of China has reached US$ 900 billion compared to the $3.5 billion reserve of Bangladesh.Business leaders, who attended the meeting, complained to the ambassador that a huge number of Chinese nationals are doing business in Bangladesh illegally.

“Most of the Chinese citizens having no work permit are opening up different kind of shops here; thereby reducing the competitiveness of local traders,” businessman SM Shafiuzzaman said.

Quoting the statistics of Board of Investment (BoI), he said there are over 359,000 illegal foreigners in Bangladesh.

He requested the ambassador to strictly monitor so that such retail traders cannot illegally come and stay in Bangladesh. Ashfaqur Rahman assured the local businesspeople that he would strictly monitor the matter and try to bring the real investors here.

China this year gave duty-free access to some 84 Bangladeshi products, he informed the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, FBCCI President Mir Nasir Hossain put forward an 11-point suggestion for increasing trade between the two countries.

The suggestions include setting up of a joint council between the two governments to resolve contentious issues, developing a dispute settlement body, holding of frequent buyer-seller meets, easier visa formalities for Bangladeshi businesspeople and assist technology transfer.

Trade between the two countries was around US$ 2.3 billion in the 2004-05 fiscal with the balance overwhelmingly in favour of China.

During the July-March period of 2005-06, China, including Hong Kong, exported goods and services to Bangladesh worth US$ 1.55 billion and imported products amounting to only US$ 45.93 million - the trade gap being around US$ 1.5 billion.