Govt, donors meet on power sector Tuesday

---

The government will hold a meeting with multilateral donor agencies and donor countries in the city Tuesday trying to attract investment into the country's problem-ridden power sector, reports UNB.
Power Ministry will host the donors' conference at Sonargaon Hotel, which will be followed by Iftar.
The secretary of the Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources already has sent invitation to all the multilateral funding agencies and donor countries, including the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, KfW and USAID.
Diplomats, chefs of different important missions and also editors of different dailies have been invited to the function.
Prime Minister's Adviser Dr. Taufiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury and State Minister for Power Brigadier Gen (retd) Enamul Haque will be present at the meeting.
The Power Division and the Power Development Board (PDB) will make presentations to apprise the potential investors and funding agencies of the ongoing development in the power sector and also the need for funds to implement projects in 4-5-year tenure.
"Our main objective in holding the meeting is to apprise the donor agencies and countries of government's plans and programmes for the power sector. Then we'll seek their support and suggestions for implementing the programmes," said a top official of the Power Division.
PDB Chairman ASM Alamgir Kabir said the country's power sector needs about US$ 6-6.5 billion in investment for implementing different projects in next 4-5 years. Of this, US$ 3-3.5 billion will be required in the generation segment and the rest for the two other segments-transmission and distribution, he noted.
"This fund will be required for both in private and public sector," Alamgir said. The present government has announced a plan to generate about 7,000-MW electricity by 2013 to bring the country to a zero-load-shedding level.