China has financed and provided technical support for a raft of development projects in Bangladesh, with several more still underway. Yet Chinese investment in the country has been declining for a number of years.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is now preparing to travel to China for the first time since his BNP-led government took office. Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office said he will visit Malaysia first, from June 21 to 22, before travelling on to China on June 23. The prime minister will then return home on June 26. Bangladesh is expected to use the visit to seek Chinese financial and technical backing for several major infrastructure projects, including bridges, elevated expressways and an underground metro, officials said.

The Bangladesh Bridge Authority has already sent the Prime Minister’s Office a list of eight large projects for presentation during the visit. They include a second bridge over the Jamuna River; a second Padma Bridge on the Paturia–Daulatdia corridor; the Dhaka–Chattogram Elevated Expressway; a bridge over the Padma River on the Pabna–Rajbari road; the Dhaka East–West Elevated Expressway; a second Muktarpur Bridge; a subway network in Dhaka (Routes S and T); and a bridge over the Meghna River on the Shariatpur–Chandpur road.

The projects will be put forward for discussion under Chinese concessional loans, grants and public–private partnership structures. Officials cautioned the projects hinge on feasibility studies, financing terms and loan approval. The transport and connectivity schemes will require more than BDT 1 trillion in funding, the bulk of which is slated to come from external sources. Bangladesh will ask China for both finance and technical expertise.

The Bridge Authority confirmed the project list has been prepared and is now ready for presentation. Most of the projects remain at the preliminary or feasibility stage. Chinese funding or involvement has yet to be finalised; only a handful of projects, such as the second Muktarpur Bridge, have seen early-stage engagement from Chinese entities.

“Preparatory work is ongoing. We were asked for a list ahead of the prime minister’s China visit, and we’ve submitted it,” said Bridge Authority Executive Director Mohammad Abdur Rauf. “The projects will be presented during the visit. After that we will understand what kind of progress is possible. The studies are under process. Some studies were done earlier — for the Padma Bridge, in particular, a previous study exists. The new proposals for the second Jamuna Bridge and Padma Bridge are currently in progress.”

He added: “In terms of Chinese-funded studies, the second Muktarpur Bridge project is the only one on this list with some headway. A Chinese firm was initially involved, and work started under a grant.”

Five major bridge projects will be presented during the China visit, each aimed at strengthening domestic connectivity. Among them, the second Jamuna Bridge is an explicit election pledge of the current government. The existing Jamuna Bridge remains the sole crossing, and it has struggled to absorb rising traffic volumes. The new bridge is scheduled for implementation between July 2026 and June 2031, with an estimated cost of BDT 175 billion. Of this, BDT 55 billion will come from the government and BDT 120 billion from external sources. A feasibility study is still underway, focused on finalising the alignment.

The second Padma Bridge on the Paturia–Daulatdia corridor has been earmarked in the proposed Annual Development Programme for the 2026–27 fiscal year at a total cost of BDT 88.53 billion. Government funding will cover BDT 30 billion; the remaining BDT 58.53 billion is to be met through loans or grants. The project will run from July 2026 to June 2031. It featured in the BNP’s election manifesto as a scheme to improve direct access between Dhaka and the west and southwest of the country. The bridge will cut travel times and strengthen links to the Mongla seaport and the Benapole and Darshana land ports. It connects the N5 and N7 national highways, making movement between Kushtia, Jhenaidah, Jashore, Meherpur and Faridpur districts significantly easier.

The second Muktarpur Bridge in Munshiganj will extend the Bangladesh–China Friendship Corridor through the Dhaka–Narayanganj–Munshiganj industrial belt. The project runs from July 2026 to June 2030 and carries an estimated cost of BDT 11.65 billion — BDT 3.2 billion from the government and BDT 8.45 billion as a Chinese grant.

Separately, a feasibility study has proposed a 238-kilometre, 11-route underground system for a subway network in Dhaka. Preliminary design has been completed for 90 kilometres of the system, which is designed to complement the existing MRT and BRT networks and reduce chronic congestion over the long term. Phase one targets four routes (B, O, S, T) for delivery by 2030, at an estimated cost of BDT 337.30 billion — averaging BDT 2.6 billion per kilometre — with an ENPV of $15,369 million, an EIRR of 11.03 percent and a benefit–cost ratio of 1.55.

Two of the subway routes are under consideration for Chinese finance. Route S (Keraniganj to Kanchpur, 22.50 km, 14 stations) is costed at BDT 58.5 billion; Route T (Narayanganj to Birulia, 35.24 km) at BDT 91.62 billion. The Bridge Authority has already completed the feasibility study for both, aiming to ease Dhaka’s severe traffic congestion.

A proposed 39.23 km elevated bypass aims to relieve chronic congestion around Dhaka’s Hanif Flyover by funnelling inter-district traffic away from the capital’s core. The corridor would run from Hemayetpur through Keraniganj and Narayanganj to Langalbandh, where it would connect with the Dhaka–Mawa highway. Projections show an economic internal rate of return of 13.3 percent, a benefit-cost ratio of 1.17 and daily traffic of 51,801 vehicles by 2035. The estimated cost is BDT 250 billion. Officials say it would pull inter-district vehicles decisively away from central Dhaka chokepoints such as the Hanif Flyover.

A separate pre-feasibility study has backed a 3.3 km bridge across the Padma River on the Pabna–Rajbari road, with 6.9 km of approach roads and 4.8 km of river training works. The crossing is intended to improve links between Dhaka, Pabna, Rajbari, Kushtia and Jhenaidah. Its estimated price tag is BDT 89.34 billion. The 2024 study calculated an EIRR of 15.72 percent and a benefit-cost ratio of 1.78, with a payback period of 17 years.

Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury announced in the proposed FY27 budget that the government intends to build a Dhaka–Chattogram elevated expressway and will seek Chinese financing. The existing Dhaka–Chattogram highway already carries more than 30,000 vehicles a day, a volume that continues to climb. Officials argue the expressway would accelerate freight movement, cut logistics costs, expand trade and inject fresh momentum into the economy.

The Economic Relations Division said a planned bridge across the Meghna River between Shariatpur and Chandpur will create a direct connection between coastal districts and Dhaka-linked economic zones under a broader road corridor. The project is scheduled to run from July 2026 to June 2033 at a total cost of BDT 194.62 billion. The government will contribute BDT 26.41 billion; foreign financing will cover the remaining BDT 168.21 billion.

A planned second Padma Bridge, a second Jamuna Bridge and the Dhaka-Chattogram Elevated Expressway are also on the agenda for the prime minister’s visit to China. The Annual Development Programme had envisaged financing from South Korea’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF). Officials at the ERD said it was too early to suggest China would provide loans or support for any of them. Neither China nor South Korea has formally expressed interest in financing the projects, they said. The proposals have been included in the visit’s discussion agenda partly because Chinese contractors worked on the first Padma Bridge. The ERD’s role comes later in the process, once agreements are reached, when it assesses issues such as project financing levels and annual disbursement schedules. Officials consequently said there was no basis at present to conclude that China would fund the schemes.

ERD Secretary Md Shahriar Kader Siddiky said the projects remained at an early stage despite being presented during the upcoming China visit.

“The head of government is travelling to China, so financing, cooperation and grants will be discussed naturally,” the ERD secretary told Bonik Barta. “Various ministries and divisions have submitted proposals to the Prime Minister’s Office, and the foreign ministry is reviewing them. If agreements are signed on any project during the visit, we (ERD) will handle the follow-up work.”

He added: “At this stage, all we can say is that the proposed financing discussions have not yet reached any level of the government’s formal aid coordination framework. The question of financing partners therefore remains open. As no formal proposal has been received, the government can’t yet confirm either the financing source or structure. Development partners haven’t formally indicated participation in these projects, so it would be premature to make any assumptions.”

Foreign ministry sources said a curtain-raiser for the visit will take place on Saturday. Projects that may be presented for investment include ports, the Chinese Special Economic Zone and financing for Teesta-related schemes.

At least 15 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) could be signed. The potential agreements cover multiple projects as well as cooperation in agriculture, energy, trade and media. The ERD may assign indicative values to prospective project plans, but the foreign ministry said it had no information on any specific investment amount that might be sought.

China is one of Bangladesh’s closest partners from a geopolitical standpoint. Bilateral strategic ties gathered pace after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Bangladesh in 2016, paving the way for Chinese investment in power plants and other major infrastructure projects.

ERD data show China has pledged a total of $11.04 billion in loans and grants to Bangladesh since 1975. Against that commitment, $8.14 billion had been disbursed by the 2024–25 fiscal year. Much of that funding was committed between Xi’s visit and 2021. Since then, Beijing has not made any major new financing pledges.

China made no new loan commitments in fiscal years 2023–24 or 2024–25. In the first 10 months of FY 2025–26, however, it pledged $230 million in loans. The country also disbursed a further $530 million in the past 10 months.

ERD officials attribute the slowdown in commitments and disbursements to the 2024 mass uprising, economic instability and the election cycle.

Several officials said: “The economy wasn’t fully stabilised during the interim government period, project implementation slowed and later the election also contributed to delays. But China resumed making commitments and disbursements from the month after the election. We expect both to increase further following the prime minister’s visit.”