Senior bureaucrats of the government are puzzled with a unique investment proposal from the United Arab Emirates linking their participation in Sonadia deep-sea port with awarding contracts for two other infrastructure projects. A senior official of DP World, a UAE government-owned company, placed their new investment proposal at a high-level meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office with PMO principal secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikdar in the chair, informed sources said.
The representative of DP World elaborating their multi-billion dollar investment plan for constructing deep sea port said they preferred investment in projects costing less than a billion US dollar before pouring huge investment in such mega project like Sonadia port.
The port-related two infrastructure projects that the UAE showed interest in are–inland container terminal at Gazipur and equipping the New Mooring Container Terminal at Chittagong Port, a senior official of the government who attended the meeting said.
‘They (DP world) want to invest in constructing the deep-sea port, but with a condition,’ the official told New Age on Wednesday.
When asked, the representative of DP World informed the meeting that they needed to have experience of investment hazards in Bangladesh through implementing two medium-sized infrastructure projects involving around US$ 310 million dollar before going for the deep-sea port which might cost nearly US$ 3.5 billion to US$ 4 billion, sources said.
The UAE government proposal, seen by New Age, stated that out of the initial investment of US$ 320 million, US$ 260 million could be spent to equip the NMCT, US$ 60 million to develop the inland container terminal at Gazipur and US$ 10 million for carrying out detailed studies for the development of the deep sea port at Sonadia.
For the deep sea port development, UAE proposed joint venture arrangement with Bangladesh, for the NMCT it favoured Equip, Operate and Transfer method and it wanted to invest in the Gazipur inland container terminal on Build, Operate and Transfer basis.
However, the meeting failed to reach any decision as the proposal from the UAE appeared to be unique for the senior officials who attended the meeting, it was learnt.
The meeting asked the shipping ministry to scrutinise the UAE’s proposal carefully soon as the deep-sea port project is one of the priority projects for the government, a shipping ministry official said.
He said they were now examining other proposals being made available from the UAE, India, China and the Netherlands on constructing the deep sea port.
DP World, founded by merging Dubai Ports Authority and Dubai Ports International, operates more than 60 terminals across six continents, with container handling, generating around 80 per cent of its revenue.
It has expansion and development projects in key growth markets, including India, China and the Middle East.
-With New Age input
