The polls-time government has approved two major policy proposals, allowing American multinational beverage-makers the Coca-Cola Company to invest in Bangladesh, and the import of fertiliser from Canada.
After yesterday’s meetings of the cabinet committee on economic affairs and the cabinet committee on purchase, Finance Minister AMA Muhith admitted that the government had adopted a policy decision.
The practice had started with the last caretaker government, which made policy decisions, he said.
“We had no choice but to make policy decisions, because the country needs fertiliser, wheat and more investment. The government must go on. But we have made this decision carefully,” the minister said.
Sources said despite being acknowledged by the prime minister and approved by the finance minister, and even though there had been time before the polls-time government took over, the cabinet could not make a decision to give the go-ahead to the Coca-Cola Company proposals.
On November 20, in a speech to the parliament, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the ministers of the interim cabinet would not make any policy decisions and would only be doing routine work during the election period.
The cabinet division official said the election time government had suspended the cabinet committee on economic affairs’ meetings, but three days ago it directed the division to hold a cabinet committee meeting on economic affairs.
The committee approved a railway ministry proposal to set up shopping mall and guesthouses on railway land at Chittagong and Comilla, under a public-private-partnership initiative.
The cost of investment will be Tk92.70cr on the 2,129 acres of land in Chittagong, while in Comilla the cost will be Tk294.5cr on a 4432 acres of land, according to the railway ministry proposal.
A proposal from the ministry of liberation war affairs said the Coca-Cola Company, based in the USA, was ready to pay $16m to clear off all outstanding debts of the state-owned Tabani Beverage Co Ltd of Bangladesh, one of the franchisees of Coca-Cola in this country.
After all the debts of Tabani are cleared, the company wants to invest another $50m (Tk3.89bn) to start afresh the production of Coca-Cola in Bangladesh.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith said the government would sign a government-to-government agreement with Canada on the import of the Muriate of Potash (MOP) fertiliser. As per the proposal, the government will import one lakh tonnes of MOP from Canada and the price will be lower than the
fertiliser from Belarus, he said. As per the proposal, BADC and Canadian Commercial Corporation will sign the agreement.
“The Canadian Ambassador in Dhaka Heather Cruden requested me to get the deal signed within a short time of the import of MOP,” Muhith said.
The cabinet committee on public purchase approved a power division proposal to extend the timeframe of the 55MW Khulna HSD power plant now operated by the UK company Aggreko International Power Project Ltd, for the next five years. Per unit, the cost of power from the plant will be Tk19.55, down from the current Tk21.21 per unit. The committee approved another five year time extension proposal for the 110MW Khulna Power Company Limited, which will now sell power for Tk15.13 per unit whereas before it was Tk19 per unit.
