Final decisions on Tata, Asian Energy, Mittal investments by July 15

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Executive chairman of the Board of Investment (BoI) Nazrul Islam Tuesday said the government would give its final decisions on the stalled investment offers by international companies like Tata, Asian Energy and Mittal Global Oil and Energy by July 15, reports UNB.
"There will be no further delay… The government will give its decisions by July 15 on the investment proposals of Tata, Asian Energy and Mittal Group," he told reporters after his meeting with a visiting investment delegation from Singapore at the BoI office.
Sources at the BoI said there is a move by the government investment promotion agency to reach decisions on the pending investment offers made by the foreign investors.
Among the interested investors, Indian Industrial giant Tata Group placed an offer to invest US$ 3.0 billion while UK-based Asia Energy made an investment offer of US$ 2.0 billion to develop open-cast coalmine and set up a power plant. Mittal Group came up with a US$ 2.9 billion investment offer in energy sector.
"Our top officials are working on the issue and holding meetings almost everyday at the chief advisor's office… That's why we're expecting a breakthrough regarding the pending investment offers," said a top official.
About his recent tour of Germany, the BoI Executive Chairman said he visited an open-cast coal mine in Cologne.
He said the coal mine site has a 5,000 MW power plant, which proves the usefulness of coal in power generation. Bangladesh can also do that as it is experiencing huge power shortage.
He, however, said experts could give a better answer whether or not the open-cast coal mine is feasible for Bangladesh.
Our correspondent adds: A delegation of the Singapore Textile and Fashion Federation has expressed willingness to invest in Bangladesh's textile industry as it sees enormous potential of the sector.
A 20-member delegation of the federation met with officials of the Board of Investment (BoI) Tuesday and discussed opportunities of investment in Bangladesh.
The delegation, currently on a visit here, is holding meetings with the various government bodies.
The BoI gave a brief presentation on investment environment in Bangladesh and opportunities in the textile sector.
The members of the visiting delegation were informed about the facilities like generalised system of preference (GSP) and opportunities of market expansion in European countries that Bangladesh enjoys in respect of Bangladesh's textile sector.
Bangladesh has enormous potential to become a global player in textile sector, the BoI said in its presentation.
"We believe it will be a win-win situation if there is a joint strategic partnership between Singapore and Bangladesh," the BoI said.
When contacted, executive chairman of the BoI Nazrul Islam said: "There is a large opportunity for investment in the fashion and textile sector in our country."
Bangladesh has good relations with Singapore, which ranked third in foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, Islam said.
He also said the government is likely to decide the fate of all the pending investment proposals by July 15 next.
The board has pending investment proposals in the pipeline to the tune of about US$10.0 billion.
The country has failed to attract its targeted FDI worth $ 1.0 billion in 2006 due to volatile political situation and indecisiveness of the government.
In a strategy to add an impetus to the FDI, the BoI again set an FDI target of $ 1.0 billion for 2007, followed by $1.2 billion for 2008, $1.4 billion for 2009, $1.6 billion for 2010 and $2.6 billion for 2015.
According to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) statistics, the country attracted $845 million worth of FDI in 2005, $460 million in 2004, $350 million in 2003 and $328 million in 2002.