Bangladesh seeks international bids for projects worth $10b

 Dubai: The Bangladesh Government is seeking international bids for a number of big-ticket infrastructure projects, which could collectively be valued at around $8 to $10 billion.

These include an eight-lane express highway between Dhaka, the country's political capital, and Chittagong — the commercial capital and the main trade gateway.

"This could be worth anywhere from $3 billion to $4 billion," Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Bangladesh's Fin-ance Minister told Gulf News in an interview.

Besides, tenders for a large deep-sea port will be invited soon, which could help the economies of India's seven landlocked states and the two Himalayan states of Nepal and Bhutan.

"But, we have made substantial progress in finalizing the plans to build the largest bridge — over the river Padma," he said. "This could cost potentially $2.6 to $2.8 billion. Bids will be invited in a few months."

The deep-sea port project will be carried out in two phases with the first having seven jetties and the second phase could see nine. This would be the South Asian country's first sea port, although Chittagong and Mongla ports serve as gateways to its economy.

Dubai's DP World has expressed an interest in Chittagong Port and subsequent development of the sea port.

Muhith welcomed their intention.

"We welcome bids by the UAE companies. These will be international competitive bids and we will choose the winner on the basis of the merits and pricing.

The country is also fin-alising a public-private partnership for physical infrastructure projects, where foreign developers and contractors could build, operate and transfer roads, highways, bridges, etc. The government could allow them to collect tolls that will help these investors get solid returns.

Power and energy

In addition to this, Bangladesh is seeking massive investment in energy and power sector. The entire country has been divided into 22 energy blocks for exploration of oil and gas.

Bangladesh is known to be gas-rich and power-hungry as it requires massive power supply for economic growth.

Muhith, a long-time bureaucrat and economist-turned-politician, is spearheading the country's economic growth engine that had remained stagnant for some time.

His government came to power last January with a massive mandate, winning 263 seats in a 300-member legislature with a promise to deliver 3,000 to 4,000 megawatts of power.

"We have already added 900 MW power to the national grid so far," he said.

"We sought bids for additional 900 megawatt power on rental. However, we have received bids four times higher. Once the pricing is finalized, we could award tenders and the country could see additional 700 MW added to the grid.

Tenders

"However, in 2010-11, we are going to float tenders for large power plants — 350 to 500 MW each to raise power output by a few thousand megawatts by 2014," he said.

"The Bangladesh economy is looking up as we have managed to reduce the impact of the global economic crisis by supporting the local agricultural sector through subsidies and by offering agricultural inputs at a cheaper price and in time to the farmers. As a result, the country has witnessed bumper crops during the first two production seasons."

As the economic prospects look up, so are investment prospects in the country, he said.

Muhith earlier tabled a record budget with the highest domestic investment in the country's 38-year history that has been greeted by economists as ambitious.

The government has already spent 10 per cent of the annual development programme in four months or 22 per cent of the country's revenue - to spur domestic consumption and growth — a move that could see an upturn in economy.