IFC offers advisory support for building deep-sea port

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has expressed interest to provide advisory support to Bangladesh in building a deep-sea port in Sonadia of Cox's Bazar district, sources said.
Recently, IFC, the private sector financing arm of the World Bank, has submitted a concept paper to the Ministry of Shipping (MoS) for development of the proposed port, they added.
A four-member delegation of the IFC will meet MoS secretary today (Tuesday) to discuss their support on development of the port.
Bangladesh has been discussing with various countries and foreign companies on funding and construction of the deep-sea port in Sonadia to meet the growing demand of external and internal trade.  
During Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's recent visit to China Dhaka was about to sign a deal with Beijing on the port construction but dropped it at the last moment.
Officials said foreign government and private companies from China, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, India, Denmark and South Korea had also expressed interest to fund and help construct the port.
"IFC would help draw up a comprehensive scheme outlining the measures to be undertaken by the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) for the development of the deep sea port," it said in the concept paper.
IFC mentioned that it has provided advisory service for 10 seaports and invested US$650 million in 30 others with additional syndication to third parties totalling more than $1.2 billion.
"With the vast experience of IFC in the port sector and exclusive access to market intelligence through its five ongoing projects in East Asia, Africa and Latin America and Caribbean region, IFC would like to assist GoB to address few critical areas upfront which will help GoB take an approach to implement projects in the port sector successfully," it added.
Detailing its offer, the IFC said it will help GoB, among others, in evaluation of proposals submitted by interested parties, analyse the proposals to see whether those fit in the overall vision of the country, assist signing MoU, and monitor the performance obligations of the counter party as per the MoU.
It also wants to help GoB devise a master plan to integrate all other port sector development initiatives and to attract private sector investment under public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Japanese firm, Pacific Consultant International (PCI), conducted a feasibility study on construction of the proposed deep-sea port in 2006. The report said the seaport at the first stage will have five international standard jetties with the capacity to handle a total of 704.01 million tonnes of containers a year. The construction cost was then estimated at Tk 600 billion.