Bangladesh businessmen set sights on Myanmar gas

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Many may find it strange that Bangladeshis want to import gas while countries like India want to buy gas from here, reports bdnews24.com.
It is a reality, though.
A Bangladeshi businessman, also the chairman of the Bangladesh-Myanmar Business Promotion Council (BMBPC), is keen to import gas from the Rakhine state of neighbouring Myanmar through pipeline.
He has already let his intention known to both the governments.
"A consortium comprising private sector entrepreneurs is ready to import gas from Rakhine in Myanmar. I don't want to wait for donors' suggestions or their money," BMBPC chairman Syed Mahmudul Huq told the news agency in an exclusive interview.
"Our gas reserve will get exhausted in 2011 and we'll have to go for purchasing it from other sources," Huq said.
Myanmar has a gas reserve of 16 TCF in Rakhine, closest to Chittagong area of Bangladesh. Both India and China are competing for buying gas from there.
"Initially, the imported gas will be used for producing fertiliser, which will be used as an input for the planned contract farming in Myanmar," Huq said.
Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company Ltd (KAFCO) had also showed interest in the proposal, he said.
Once the demand for gas to produce fertiliser for contract farming is met, the surplus gas will be used for power generation to reduce deficits in power supply.
Huq, a founder member of the council launched in 1998, said Myanmar was set to lease out 50,000 acres of land to Bangladeshi entrepreneurs for contract and commercial farming.
"We want to place a package before Myanmar involving farming and gas issues."
He said Bangladesh and Myanmar are not only closest neighbours, they also have deep-rooted cultural and economic bonds.
He said once Arakan was part of Bengal and still the Chittagong-Cox's Bazar road is known as Arakan Road.
On the proposed road link between the two countries, Huq said the old connectivity needs to be restored only with the new agreement due to be signed in Dhaka on July 27.
The construction minister of Myanmar is in Dhaka to seal the deal.
According to Communication Ministry officials, the signing will cap a long negotiation and mark the beginning of the first phase of construction of the 153 km road link that will cost Tk 9.46 billion (946 crore).
In the first phase, 43 km will be constructed with 23 kilometres road running from Ramu to Ghungdhum on Bangladesh side and 20 kilometres of road from Tungbro to Bawli Bazar in Myanmar.