Communications minister Obaidul Quader on Tuesday said that a Chinese company has proposed Bangladesh to invest US $ 2.4 billion in Padma Multipurpose Bridge (PMB) project. A four member delegation led by Exim Bank of China’s assistant president Yang Biao on behave of the company has given the proposal to Communications Minister Obaidul Quader during a meeting held at his secretariat office. “A state-owned Chinese company ‘Poly Technologies has proposed Bangladesh to invest US $ 2.4 billion to PMB project. The investment will be under the Government to Government (G2G) basis. The bridge will be constructed on ‘built-own-operate-transfer (BOOT)’ system. It’s a good proposal for Bangladesh which will be more effective than that of the World Bank (WB),” the communications minister told reporters after the meeting.
The WB finally cancelled the $1.2 billion loan for the Padma Multipurpose Bridge project over allegations of corruption dealing a blow to the country’s biggest infrastructure project on June 29 last year.
Quader said, “the Poly Technologies gave their proposal a few days ago. The Economic Relation Division (ERD) is examining the proposal. If the proposal seems to be on behave of our interest, we will consider it positively and sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with them.”
Denying describing details on the issue before signing an MOU with the authority, the communications minister said, “So far I know it’s a better proposal than the World Bank. It will reduce the pressure of foreign exchange of the country.
The authority also expressed their interest to invest in some infrastructural projects including ‘Dhaka-Chittagong Elevated Express Way’.
Sources said, the interest rate would be lower than the Malaysian proposal.
Other members of the delegation that met with the minister, are- Exim Bank’s business manager Li Yiding and Poly Technologies’s general manager Zhao Lingzhi and senior project manager Jiang Ying.
Bangladesh also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on construction of the PMB with Malaysian company in Kuala Lumpur on April 10 last year.
Earlier, the World Bank suspended its promised US$ 1.2 billion funding for the PMB project on allegations of corruption in its consultancy service. The government signed deals to procure funds worth US$ 1.2 billion from the WB, USD 615 million from the Asian Development Bank, USD 400 million from Japan International Cooperation Agency, and USD 140 million from Islamic Development Bank, to arrange funding for the USD 2.9 billion PMB , the country’s longest bridge spanning the huge river opening the south western region with the capital. The 6.15-km bridge, with a total of 3.68-km land-based approach viaducts on both sides of the river will connect 19 south-western districts and the capital, enhancing their access to markets, improving services and accelerating growth.
-With The Independent input
