The Cabinet has approved Bangladesh-China joint venture power company at a meeting yesterday presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The retrospective approval came in response to a power division proposal.
The joint venture includes Bangladesh’s North-West Power Generation Company Limited and China’s National Machinery Import and Export Corporation. After the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain said China and Bangladesh governments had signed an agreement on June 9 last year during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit.
Bangladesh-China Power Company Private Ltd has already started setting up a coal-based 1320 megawatt power plant in Patuakhali, said cabinet secretary.
The new company was registered with the Office of the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms on October 1 last year, followed by its first board meeting for developing the 1,320MW Payra coal-fired power plant on October 15, 2014.
The project site will be on the bank of the Rabnabad River near Payra maritime port, while the project has an estimated cost of $2bn.
On March 19, the NWPGCL and the CMC signed a memorandum of understanding to set up the plant in Patuakhali’s Kalapara upazila.
A six-member BCPCL board consists of three members from Bangladesh including the chairman, while the rest are from China. According to the joint venture agreement, Bangladesh will chair the company for the first five years and China the next three years.
A top official of the NWPGCL said an agreement has been reached with the CMC that the joint venture company’s share will have 50:50 equity ratio between the two companies, while the project will be implemented on a 30:70 equity-debt basis.
That means, the NWPGCL and the CMC will need to provide 30% fund of the total project and mobilise the other 70% from international sources.
