NEW DELHI, Dec 29 (BSS): Cooperation in the energy sector and improvement of road and port infrastructure are the key areas of discussion in which India and Bangladesh are expected to engage themselves within the next three months, Bangladesh Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said in Kolkata last Sunday.
He said his government already had a high-level discussion with India on these areas of bilateral cooperation and was expected to hold further discussions in the coming months.
Mr Muhith was speaking at an interactive session at the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
After the new government taking over in India, an impression is there that there will be continuity of policies. Some issues needed to be discussed bilaterally, which also included energy cooperation, he said.
"Besides energy cooperation, bilateral discussions are also expected to focus on the use of waterways and land routes for extensive use."
"In some areas there has been a sort of diagnosis of what is to be done and what not to be done. Then the government in India changed. With the new government, we had a high-level contact last October in Washington and we were told just this month that it would be exactly as it was before," Mr Muhith said.
"Following that assurance some of the developments, which had taken place in the last four years, will now be discussed bilaterally and in some areas trilaterally. So, that's in the offing," he said.
"One of the areas is energy cooperation. It involves not simply India and Bangladesh but also Bhutan and Nepal.
"With Bhutan and Nepal, we have done some work and we were supposed to put it in a combined gathering of those countries. Exactly at the time, we made this request, there was a change in the government. Now anytime we expect these trilateral meetings -- one with Bangladesh, Nepal and India and Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal on mainly energy cooperation."
At present, Bangladesh imports around 500 megawatt power from India and is looking to source more from India as it looks to sustain an average growth rate of 6.2 per cent.
While the NTPC is looking to set up a thermal power plant in Bangladesh with cooperation from the Bangladesh power development board, the neighbouring country may also source power from the ONGC Tripura gas-based thermal power project.
Mr Muhith also expressed his concern over the poor state of roads and ports in Bangladesh the improvement of which is important for the two countries.
"There is not enough standard for a substantially increased use. This is the second area where quite a bit of proposals have been formulated and needs to be considered now.
"After getting a green signal now from Prime Minister Modi, the process has been expedited. I expect we should start discussions within the next three months," he said.
