China pledges increased engagement with Saarc

A senior Chinese official said here Wednesday that the country will continue to deepen its ties with South Asian countries and outlined extensive policies to engage in trade liberalisation and development.

Greater engagement would take place in the coming years, said Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin, head of the delegation attending the 18th summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc), at which China is an observer.

"China has put forward a series of initiatives, (including) increasing trade between South Asia and China to $150 billion and investment to $30 billion in the next five years," Xinhua quoted Liu as saying at the gathering in Nepal's capital Kathmandu.

"We are offering South Asian countries with $30 billion in construction of roads, offering 10,000 scholarships, 5,000 training opportunities and exchange programmes for 5,000 youths and sending off 5,000 Chinese language teachers in South Asian countries in the next five years," he said.

China would implement the China-South Asia partnership initiatives in science and technology, he said, and added: "We look forward to Saarc countries' active participation in these cooperation programmes and we believe they will enrich China-Saarc cooperation."

Since last year China has put forward a host of policies, including the Silk Road Economic Belt, the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the establishment of a $40-billion fund to facilitate infrastructure projects for the Silk Road initiative.

China has been an observer of SAARC since 2006 and has pledged to increase engagement with the bloc. Eight others, including the European Union, the US and Australia are also observers.

Extablished in 1985 in Bangladesh, Saarc groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.