jkroo
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Show me first and maybe I will show you mine not that obsolete words in Chinese
China-Sri Lanka Cooperation: News & Discussions
- Thread starter Max The Boss
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Shotgunner51
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Calm down dear bro, domestic politics in Lanka is complicated just like most countries, let's have patience. The people of China and SL have a lot of common interests, pragmatism prevails.
tranquilium
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I don't agree with your assessment. Sri Lanka is a sovereign nation and its relationship with China has been good. More Chinese investment in Sri Lanka will be good.
Jlaw
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Sri Lanka have been flip flopping on Chinese investments in the past due to Indian pressure. The current government is pro Indian but need Chinese money.
What Hongwu saying is not all non-sense.
China’s Cash Proves Too Irresistible for Sri Lanka to Ignore - Bloomberg Business
"After taking power, Sirisena moved to meet a campaign pledge to reduce Sri Lanka’s dependence on China. He opened an investigation into the Colombo port city project, prompting sea reclamation and other activities to stop."
"Now his administration is changing its approach. With an economy more than 100 times smaller than China’s, Sri Lanka has little choice but to play nice."
JOEY TRIBIANI
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Good for them .
Tresbon
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BEIJING
Sri Lanka would consider allowing Chinese naval ships to visit again but no request has been forthcoming yet, the country's defense secretary said on Sunday.
Sri Lanka's previous government had caused concern in India with its close ties to Beijing, including allowing Chinese submarines to dock.
New Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has unnerved China though with his re-examination of relations, including a $1.5-billion Chinese-invested "port city" project in the capital Colombo.
Visiting Beijing in February, Sri Lanka's foreign minister said future visits by Chinese submarines were unlikely.
But Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi, who only took up his post last month, told Reuters in Beijing that he would give serious thought to new requests from China for naval ships to call, even if there are no plans currently.
"It has not come to my table yet. If it comes I'll give it due consideration. If it comes in the right track we'll consider it seriously," he said on the sidelines of a military forum.
"If it is really interesting and worthwhile, sometimes we do combined operations and exercises with military vessels from around the world, no discrimination."
China has built a seaport and airport in Sri Lanka's south, raising fears it is seeking influence in a country with which India has traditionally had deep ties.
China's defense minister told the head of the Sri Lankan navy in June he wanted to ensure a "continuous and stable" development of military ties.
Hettiarachchi said his government was just trying to make sure it was being transparent in its relations with China, and that military ties should remain strong.
"There was a complaint about the previous regime about transparency but I think we are more transparent and our relations are going to be stronger in times to come."
(This story corrects title to defence secretary not minister)
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry)
Sri Lanka says would consider visit by China navy ships| Reuters
Sri Lanka would consider allowing Chinese naval ships to visit again but no request has been forthcoming yet, the country's defense secretary said on Sunday.
Sri Lanka's previous government had caused concern in India with its close ties to Beijing, including allowing Chinese submarines to dock.
New Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has unnerved China though with his re-examination of relations, including a $1.5-billion Chinese-invested "port city" project in the capital Colombo.
Visiting Beijing in February, Sri Lanka's foreign minister said future visits by Chinese submarines were unlikely.
But Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi, who only took up his post last month, told Reuters in Beijing that he would give serious thought to new requests from China for naval ships to call, even if there are no plans currently.
"It has not come to my table yet. If it comes I'll give it due consideration. If it comes in the right track we'll consider it seriously," he said on the sidelines of a military forum.
"If it is really interesting and worthwhile, sometimes we do combined operations and exercises with military vessels from around the world, no discrimination."
China has built a seaport and airport in Sri Lanka's south, raising fears it is seeking influence in a country with which India has traditionally had deep ties.
China's defense minister told the head of the Sri Lankan navy in June he wanted to ensure a "continuous and stable" development of military ties.
Hettiarachchi said his government was just trying to make sure it was being transparent in its relations with China, and that military ties should remain strong.
"There was a complaint about the previous regime about transparency but I think we are more transparent and our relations are going to be stronger in times to come."
(This story corrects title to defence secretary not minister)
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry)
Sri Lanka says would consider visit by China navy ships| Reuters
Mamsalaphala
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SL will accept china ship but will inform India.
TaiShang
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Tuesday, October 20, 2015 - 01:00
'SL, China helped each other during crisis situations'
President Maithripala Sirisena's recent visit to China is an indication of the strong relationship, friendship and goodwill between the two nations, Justice and Buddhasasana Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe said.
"Both countries helped each other during crisis situations and China always safeguarded the dignity and self respect of Sri Lanka at every turn.
China and Sri Lanka will remain friends in the future too," he said.
Delivering the keynote address at the inauguration ceremony of the 4th China - South Asia Friendship Organisations Forum at the Kingsbury Hotel, Colombo yesterday, he said in the recent past Sri Lanka and China entered into several key memorandums of understanding for close cooperation covering economic and technical cooperation, urban development, investment promotion, film industry, agriculture and student exchange.
This would not only boost bilateral trade but other social and cultural ties as well, he said.
The first China - South Asia Friendship Organisations Forum was held in 2009 in Beijing.
Media Minister Gayantha Karunatilleke said that Sri Lanka is fortunate to host the China - South Asia Friendship Organisations Forum this year.
"Inter state cooperation as well as establishment of sustainable friendships will be important for such benefits to be meaningful," the minister added.
Chief Guest Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, CPAFFC Vice President Lin Yi and Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embasy Wang Ying Gi also addressed the gathering.
'SL, China helped each other during crisis situations'
President Maithripala Sirisena's recent visit to China is an indication of the strong relationship, friendship and goodwill between the two nations, Justice and Buddhasasana Minister Wijayadasa Rajapakshe said.
"Both countries helped each other during crisis situations and China always safeguarded the dignity and self respect of Sri Lanka at every turn.
China and Sri Lanka will remain friends in the future too," he said.
Delivering the keynote address at the inauguration ceremony of the 4th China - South Asia Friendship Organisations Forum at the Kingsbury Hotel, Colombo yesterday, he said in the recent past Sri Lanka and China entered into several key memorandums of understanding for close cooperation covering economic and technical cooperation, urban development, investment promotion, film industry, agriculture and student exchange.
This would not only boost bilateral trade but other social and cultural ties as well, he said.
The first China - South Asia Friendship Organisations Forum was held in 2009 in Beijing.
Media Minister Gayantha Karunatilleke said that Sri Lanka is fortunate to host the China - South Asia Friendship Organisations Forum this year.
"Inter state cooperation as well as establishment of sustainable friendships will be important for such benefits to be meaningful," the minister added.
Chief Guest Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, CPAFFC Vice President Lin Yi and Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embasy Wang Ying Gi also addressed the gathering.
TaiShang
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Chinese-built port terminal in Sri Lanka makes waves
Success story of a deepwater port in Sri Lanka stands out in the controversy over Chinese-invested infrastructure projects
UPDATED : Monday, 09 November, 2015, 2:24am
The waves licking the giant of a ship docked at Colombo's spanking new terminal in the crisp autumn noon cut a stark contrast to the lifeless swathe of the ocean on the other side marked for a controversial reclamation project stuck in the cross-currents of local and international politics.
Majority-owned by Hong Kong-listed China Merchant Holdings International (CMHI), Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) may not get the headlines like its Chinese-funded twin next door, but it gets the job done. Unlike the stalled US$1.4 billion Colombo Port City, the CICT-run "South Terminal" is making the right kind of waves, raking it in for Colombo port like never before and transforming Sri Lanka into a regional shipping hub.
Read more: Why a Chinese port operator is a key player in Indian cargo
"See that big cat over there?" points Tissa Wickramasinghe, general manager, commercial and marketing, at CICT. "It takes US$200,000 every day to keep it purring. That's the kind of daily operating cost we are talking about for ships of this size. Even an hour's delay means big bucks. That's why they come here, for the reliability of service and the geography."
Wickramasinghe's bragging rights are well earned. With world-class facilities designed to accommodate ultra-large ships - like the CMA CGM Marco Polo that the white-goateed Wickramasinghe is pointing to - the terminal has been a phenomenal success in attracting ships with capacity of more than 10,000 20-foot equivalent units (teu) that would otherwise bypass Sri Lanka's shallow ports. The 16,020 teu Marco Polo used to be the world's biggest ship before being overtaken by an 18,270 teu ship in 2013.
"The new facilities make it (Colombo) the only port in the South Asia region with a deepwater terminal that can accommodate the newest breed of 18,000 teu container ships. Higher efficiency and faster delivery times will attract larger vessels and higher volumes of trade," notes the Asian Development Bank in a recent report.
Colombo's new-found capacity to handle mega vessels is helping it to take on the transshipment role traditionally performed by ports in Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai. Being much closer to the lucrative India market than these hubs, Colombo is fast emerging as the region's port of choice. More so because most of India's own ports lack the depth or the infrastructure to handle big vessels, making a Chinese port operator the unlikely winner from rising India trade.
Tissa WickramasingheCMHI holds an 85 per cent stake in CICT while the rest is held by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. CMHI bid for the project at the peak of Sri Lanka's civil war in 2009, when not many foreign investors were interested in the country. Its US$500 million investment in the terminal makes it one of the largest foreign direct investments in Sri Lanka and the largest project run by a foreign company in the country.
Growth spurt
Receiving more than 100 ship calls a month, the South Terminal handled one million teus in the first eight months of the year, after notching up 686,600 teus last year, its first year of operation. "That's a huge achievement for any terminal anywhere in the world. The target is 1.3 million teus this year and 2.4 million teu in two years, which is the planned capacity of this terminal," says Wickramasinghe.
Last year, after becoming operational in April, CICT helped raise Colombo port's total annual throughput by 14 per cent to 4.9 million teus. That compares with the port's compound annual growth rate of 1 per cent in the previous four years. The growth spurt helped Colombo rise three spots to 30th on the Journal of Commerce's ranking of global container ports. When the terminal hits full capacity, Colombo will zoom into the top 20.
CICT's importance to Colombo, however, goes beyond just adding capacity, says Mark Szakonyi, maritime expert and an executive editor at the Journal."In a transshipment market plied by increasingly larger vessels, the terminal gives the port a chance to stay competitive," he says.
During his trip to the country in September last year, President Xi Jinping visited South Terminal, described by Xinhua as "a flagship project under China's 21st century Maritime Silk Road initiative". But CICT's feat makes it stand apart from almost every other China-funded infrastructure project in Sri Lanka, where Chinese investments have come under scrutiny since a change of government this year as the new administration associates them with the corruption-tainted previous government of China ally Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Deep south in Hambantota, Chinese companies built a port in Rajapaksa's family constituency. It quickly acquired the reputation as one of Rajapaksa's biggest white elephants, failing to attract enough ships to cover even the operating costs.
READ MORE: Sri Lanka looks to China to buoy sinking port
South Terminal is also a class apart from the adjacent indigenous terminals. While the Chinese-invested terminal goes from strength to strength, traffic at the state-run terminals is down 13 per cent from last year while that at a nearby private terminal is down 15.5 per cent.
New growth engines
But the starkest contrast is next door, in the shape of a stalled Monaco-sized reclamation project that has become a bone of contention between China and Sri Lanka since the new government pulled it.
Financed by state-owned and Hong Kong-listed China Communications Construction Co and executed by its subsidiary, CHEC Port City Colombo, the project became a major election issue as a symbol of Rajapaksa's alleged greed and subversion of government procedures to favour Chinese investors. Nearly a year since his ouster, it is yet to get off the ground.
Like Colombo port, CICT is transforming its owner, CMHI, providing it with a fresh revenue stream at a time when ports are at a low ebb at home. The company's first-half net profit jumped 29 per cent to HK$2.78 billion year on year while revenue climbed 4 per cent to HK$4.08 billion, with a fifth of the throughput handled by the company coming from overseas ports.
Apart from port interests in the mainland, Hong Kong and Colombo, CMHI has a 49 per cent stake in French port company Terminal Link that operates 14 terminals across the world. Recently it joined a Chinese consortium to take a controlling stake in a port in Turkey, and is now eyeing a port in Lithuania.
Large vessels docked at Colombo's South Terminal. Photo: SCMP Pictures
"We expect the throughput at Chinese ports to see only single-digit growth in the next few years amid the economic slowdown," CMHI chairman Li Jianhong said at the half-yearly results briefing. "For us, overseas projects will become more and more important and our key growth engine."
Outperformer
South Terminal, which CMHI built in 28 months rather than the scheduled 60, may in fact be growing too fast for its own good. The government, while acknowledging its stellar performance, has started asking for a bigger bite of its takings.
CMHI's success gives it a better chance of winning the bid for the planned new "East Terminal", Ports Minister Arjuna Ranatunga has been quoted by local media as saying. But the catch is, CMHI has to reduce its stake in South Terminal as the new government wants to give the state a 51 per cent stake in public-private joint ventures, reversing Rajapaksa's policy of offering majority stakes in such projects.
Talks are said to be on between the government and CMHI over giving the latter a 49 per cent stake in East Terminal in lieu of a reduced stake in South Terminal, but neither side is ready to divulge the nature and status of the negotiations. Commerce apart, there are wider geopolitical issues at stake.
India, increasingly concerned about a Chinese presence in its relatively less guarded southern flank, has also said it wants its companies to "become stakeholders in Colombo port's expansion" given the large amount of Indian cargo that goes through the port.
Two Chinese submarine calls in Colombo last year alarmed New Delhi and are understood to have been the final straw in India's relations with Rajapaksa, already strained over his ties with China.
Wickramasinghe is mum about the state of negotiations but insists that whatever the final outcome, it would be best if CMHI retained project management control of the terminal.
"The government terminals employ 8,000 people and handle two million teus. We are approaching 1.3 million teu with 1,000 workers. Ours is not an employment generating agency and we intend to keep it that way," he says.
Endless tea breaks
Keeping productivity up has not been easy for the Chinese company in a country with industrial norms and work culture very different from home.
"In Sri Lanka, there are so many breaks. Workers want a tea break every couple of hours. That's very different from China, where port workers put in long hours and often take their meals at the site itself to minimise work interruptions," says chief operations officer Ray Ren in his sprawling office at the CICT building on the terminal.
"But we have created an incentive system in which nearly half the salary is linked to performance. This is similar to the comprehensive indicator system we have in China."
The soft-spoken Shenzhen native has also had a tough time keeping myriad unions at bay.
"We have established an elected employee committee that can raise labour issues with the management. That eliminates the need for unions, which are driven more by politics than labour welfare. We try to convince workers that they don't need unions."
How long Ren will prevail over workers in a democracy with a long tradition of port unions is anybody's guess. But for now, no tea cups are in sight even as the sun is beginning to soften. The waves - by now light orange - are still at it, savouring the giant feast, as a new batch of workers start arriving for their share.
Success story of a deepwater port in Sri Lanka stands out in the controversy over Chinese-invested infrastructure projects
UPDATED : Monday, 09 November, 2015, 2:24am
The waves licking the giant of a ship docked at Colombo's spanking new terminal in the crisp autumn noon cut a stark contrast to the lifeless swathe of the ocean on the other side marked for a controversial reclamation project stuck in the cross-currents of local and international politics.
Majority-owned by Hong Kong-listed China Merchant Holdings International (CMHI), Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) may not get the headlines like its Chinese-funded twin next door, but it gets the job done. Unlike the stalled US$1.4 billion Colombo Port City, the CICT-run "South Terminal" is making the right kind of waves, raking it in for Colombo port like never before and transforming Sri Lanka into a regional shipping hub.
Read more: Why a Chinese port operator is a key player in Indian cargo
"See that big cat over there?" points Tissa Wickramasinghe, general manager, commercial and marketing, at CICT. "It takes US$200,000 every day to keep it purring. That's the kind of daily operating cost we are talking about for ships of this size. Even an hour's delay means big bucks. That's why they come here, for the reliability of service and the geography."
Wickramasinghe's bragging rights are well earned. With world-class facilities designed to accommodate ultra-large ships - like the CMA CGM Marco Polo that the white-goateed Wickramasinghe is pointing to - the terminal has been a phenomenal success in attracting ships with capacity of more than 10,000 20-foot equivalent units (teu) that would otherwise bypass Sri Lanka's shallow ports. The 16,020 teu Marco Polo used to be the world's biggest ship before being overtaken by an 18,270 teu ship in 2013.
"The new facilities make it (Colombo) the only port in the South Asia region with a deepwater terminal that can accommodate the newest breed of 18,000 teu container ships. Higher efficiency and faster delivery times will attract larger vessels and higher volumes of trade," notes the Asian Development Bank in a recent report.
Colombo's new-found capacity to handle mega vessels is helping it to take on the transshipment role traditionally performed by ports in Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai. Being much closer to the lucrative India market than these hubs, Colombo is fast emerging as the region's port of choice. More so because most of India's own ports lack the depth or the infrastructure to handle big vessels, making a Chinese port operator the unlikely winner from rising India trade.
Tissa WickramasingheCMHI holds an 85 per cent stake in CICT while the rest is held by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority. CMHI bid for the project at the peak of Sri Lanka's civil war in 2009, when not many foreign investors were interested in the country. Its US$500 million investment in the terminal makes it one of the largest foreign direct investments in Sri Lanka and the largest project run by a foreign company in the country.
Growth spurt
Receiving more than 100 ship calls a month, the South Terminal handled one million teus in the first eight months of the year, after notching up 686,600 teus last year, its first year of operation. "That's a huge achievement for any terminal anywhere in the world. The target is 1.3 million teus this year and 2.4 million teu in two years, which is the planned capacity of this terminal," says Wickramasinghe.
Last year, after becoming operational in April, CICT helped raise Colombo port's total annual throughput by 14 per cent to 4.9 million teus. That compares with the port's compound annual growth rate of 1 per cent in the previous four years. The growth spurt helped Colombo rise three spots to 30th on the Journal of Commerce's ranking of global container ports. When the terminal hits full capacity, Colombo will zoom into the top 20.
CICT's importance to Colombo, however, goes beyond just adding capacity, says Mark Szakonyi, maritime expert and an executive editor at the Journal."In a transshipment market plied by increasingly larger vessels, the terminal gives the port a chance to stay competitive," he says.
During his trip to the country in September last year, President Xi Jinping visited South Terminal, described by Xinhua as "a flagship project under China's 21st century Maritime Silk Road initiative". But CICT's feat makes it stand apart from almost every other China-funded infrastructure project in Sri Lanka, where Chinese investments have come under scrutiny since a change of government this year as the new administration associates them with the corruption-tainted previous government of China ally Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Deep south in Hambantota, Chinese companies built a port in Rajapaksa's family constituency. It quickly acquired the reputation as one of Rajapaksa's biggest white elephants, failing to attract enough ships to cover even the operating costs.
READ MORE: Sri Lanka looks to China to buoy sinking port
South Terminal is also a class apart from the adjacent indigenous terminals. While the Chinese-invested terminal goes from strength to strength, traffic at the state-run terminals is down 13 per cent from last year while that at a nearby private terminal is down 15.5 per cent.
New growth engines
But the starkest contrast is next door, in the shape of a stalled Monaco-sized reclamation project that has become a bone of contention between China and Sri Lanka since the new government pulled it.
Financed by state-owned and Hong Kong-listed China Communications Construction Co and executed by its subsidiary, CHEC Port City Colombo, the project became a major election issue as a symbol of Rajapaksa's alleged greed and subversion of government procedures to favour Chinese investors. Nearly a year since his ouster, it is yet to get off the ground.
Like Colombo port, CICT is transforming its owner, CMHI, providing it with a fresh revenue stream at a time when ports are at a low ebb at home. The company's first-half net profit jumped 29 per cent to HK$2.78 billion year on year while revenue climbed 4 per cent to HK$4.08 billion, with a fifth of the throughput handled by the company coming from overseas ports.
Apart from port interests in the mainland, Hong Kong and Colombo, CMHI has a 49 per cent stake in French port company Terminal Link that operates 14 terminals across the world. Recently it joined a Chinese consortium to take a controlling stake in a port in Turkey, and is now eyeing a port in Lithuania.
Large vessels docked at Colombo's South Terminal. Photo: SCMP Pictures
"We expect the throughput at Chinese ports to see only single-digit growth in the next few years amid the economic slowdown," CMHI chairman Li Jianhong said at the half-yearly results briefing. "For us, overseas projects will become more and more important and our key growth engine."
Outperformer
South Terminal, which CMHI built in 28 months rather than the scheduled 60, may in fact be growing too fast for its own good. The government, while acknowledging its stellar performance, has started asking for a bigger bite of its takings.
CMHI's success gives it a better chance of winning the bid for the planned new "East Terminal", Ports Minister Arjuna Ranatunga has been quoted by local media as saying. But the catch is, CMHI has to reduce its stake in South Terminal as the new government wants to give the state a 51 per cent stake in public-private joint ventures, reversing Rajapaksa's policy of offering majority stakes in such projects.
Talks are said to be on between the government and CMHI over giving the latter a 49 per cent stake in East Terminal in lieu of a reduced stake in South Terminal, but neither side is ready to divulge the nature and status of the negotiations. Commerce apart, there are wider geopolitical issues at stake.
India, increasingly concerned about a Chinese presence in its relatively less guarded southern flank, has also said it wants its companies to "become stakeholders in Colombo port's expansion" given the large amount of Indian cargo that goes through the port.
Two Chinese submarine calls in Colombo last year alarmed New Delhi and are understood to have been the final straw in India's relations with Rajapaksa, already strained over his ties with China.
Wickramasinghe is mum about the state of negotiations but insists that whatever the final outcome, it would be best if CMHI retained project management control of the terminal.
"The government terminals employ 8,000 people and handle two million teus. We are approaching 1.3 million teu with 1,000 workers. Ours is not an employment generating agency and we intend to keep it that way," he says.
Endless tea breaks
Keeping productivity up has not been easy for the Chinese company in a country with industrial norms and work culture very different from home.
"In Sri Lanka, there are so many breaks. Workers want a tea break every couple of hours. That's very different from China, where port workers put in long hours and often take their meals at the site itself to minimise work interruptions," says chief operations officer Ray Ren in his sprawling office at the CICT building on the terminal.
"But we have created an incentive system in which nearly half the salary is linked to performance. This is similar to the comprehensive indicator system we have in China."
The soft-spoken Shenzhen native has also had a tough time keeping myriad unions at bay.
"We have established an elected employee committee that can raise labour issues with the management. That eliminates the need for unions, which are driven more by politics than labour welfare. We try to convince workers that they don't need unions."
How long Ren will prevail over workers in a democracy with a long tradition of port unions is anybody's guess. But for now, no tea cups are in sight even as the sun is beginning to soften. The waves - by now light orange - are still at it, savouring the giant feast, as a new batch of workers start arriving for their share.
Economic superpower
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Need to bring Bangladesh into China's sphere of influence then India is surrounded from all sides. Once that is done, then its time to destabilise India internally by supporting separatist movements. Cause them internal and external problems.
TaiShang
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China seeks railway electrification deal in Bangladesh
November 04, 2015
China has proposed to introduce an 'electrification system' in Bangladesh on the country's rail networks to allow for a faster, easier and efficient transport service and boost capacity.
"As a fast developing country, Bangladesh should immediately start electrification of its railway lines so that the transportation capacity can be increased dramatically in the future," said Hu Weidong, vice president of state-owned Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC).
Speaking to visiting journalists from Bangladesh and Nepal at the DEC headquarters, he said he already pitched the idea to Md Amzad Hossain, director general of Bangladesh Railway, while on a visit to Bangladesh last week.
A railway electrification system supplies power to trains or trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electrifying key routes on the railway will mean faster, greener, quieter and more reliable journeys for thousands of passengers.
"We are interested because we specialise in electrification of railways," said the top executive of a leading company specialising in power equipment manufacturing and worldwide power projects.
Headquartered in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, DEC is one of the largest backbone enterprise groups of the Chinese central government. Founded in 1958, DEC already installed the Rawjan Thermal Power Project in Chittagong.
DEC has been enlisted among the top global contractors evaluated by the Engineering News-Record, a US-based weekly magazine that provides news, analysis, data and opinion for the construction industry worldwide since 1994, Weidong said.
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Weidong hopes that Bangladesh will consider China for construction of its second nuclear power plant, especially as China believes that the electricity demand of Bangladesh will increase dramatically in the coming years.
"For a country's development, the first thing is power and infrastructure. That has been China's experience in the last three decades."
During a recent discussion with Bangladesh officials, he found that the nation has an installed capacity of around 14,000MW at present. This capacity cannot fully meet the electricity demand of fast growing Bangladesh, as demonstrated by the purchase of power from neighbouring India, he said. "That means you have a big shortage of electricity supply, for which I hope DEC and Bangladesh can work together."
Moreover, some Chinese textiles are shifting their production facilities to Bangladesh, which will further increase the demand for power, he said.
"Therefore, I think the demand for power [in Bangladesh] will increase dramatically. On the other hand, DEC has a manufacturing capacity of up to 42,000MW. So we have a lot of room for cooperation."
European countries like Britain are using Chinese technology in nuclear power plants, so the issue of safety is moot, he said. China and Britain signed a deal to build a nuclear power station with a capacity of over 1,000MW in the UK a couple of days ago, during Chinese President Xi Jinping's first state visit to London, he added.
"So our standards are being recognised by developed countries, like the United Kingdom."
Regarding the Rooppur nuclear power plant in Bangladesh, the top executive said Russian technology is good, but Bangladesh will surely make a comparison in taking any future decision.
DEC top officials also discussed their past, current and future projects in various countries, including Bangladesh. Jin Wei, deputy general manager (plant and project) and other officials of DEC were also present.
November 04, 2015
China has proposed to introduce an 'electrification system' in Bangladesh on the country's rail networks to allow for a faster, easier and efficient transport service and boost capacity.
"As a fast developing country, Bangladesh should immediately start electrification of its railway lines so that the transportation capacity can be increased dramatically in the future," said Hu Weidong, vice president of state-owned Dongfang Electric Corporation (DEC).
Speaking to visiting journalists from Bangladesh and Nepal at the DEC headquarters, he said he already pitched the idea to Md Amzad Hossain, director general of Bangladesh Railway, while on a visit to Bangladesh last week.
A railway electrification system supplies power to trains or trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electrifying key routes on the railway will mean faster, greener, quieter and more reliable journeys for thousands of passengers.
"We are interested because we specialise in electrification of railways," said the top executive of a leading company specialising in power equipment manufacturing and worldwide power projects.
Headquartered in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, DEC is one of the largest backbone enterprise groups of the Chinese central government. Founded in 1958, DEC already installed the Rawjan Thermal Power Project in Chittagong.
DEC has been enlisted among the top global contractors evaluated by the Engineering News-Record, a US-based weekly magazine that provides news, analysis, data and opinion for the construction industry worldwide since 1994, Weidong said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Weidong hopes that Bangladesh will consider China for construction of its second nuclear power plant, especially as China believes that the electricity demand of Bangladesh will increase dramatically in the coming years.
"For a country's development, the first thing is power and infrastructure. That has been China's experience in the last three decades."
During a recent discussion with Bangladesh officials, he found that the nation has an installed capacity of around 14,000MW at present. This capacity cannot fully meet the electricity demand of fast growing Bangladesh, as demonstrated by the purchase of power from neighbouring India, he said. "That means you have a big shortage of electricity supply, for which I hope DEC and Bangladesh can work together."
Moreover, some Chinese textiles are shifting their production facilities to Bangladesh, which will further increase the demand for power, he said.
"Therefore, I think the demand for power [in Bangladesh] will increase dramatically. On the other hand, DEC has a manufacturing capacity of up to 42,000MW. So we have a lot of room for cooperation."
European countries like Britain are using Chinese technology in nuclear power plants, so the issue of safety is moot, he said. China and Britain signed a deal to build a nuclear power station with a capacity of over 1,000MW in the UK a couple of days ago, during Chinese President Xi Jinping's first state visit to London, he added.
"So our standards are being recognised by developed countries, like the United Kingdom."
Regarding the Rooppur nuclear power plant in Bangladesh, the top executive said Russian technology is good, but Bangladesh will surely make a comparison in taking any future decision.
DEC top officials also discussed their past, current and future projects in various countries, including Bangladesh. Jin Wei, deputy general manager (plant and project) and other officials of DEC were also present.
