Imperatives for giving highest priority to energy sector
Monday, 17 November 2008
There are umpteenth reasons why energy supply should be accorded the highest priorities in actions and planning by the government that will come to power following the general election. The urgency to both augment energy supply and plan neatly for energy production, were the moot subjects in a seminar that was organised in Dhaka on Saturday. The notable side to this seminar was the inviting of representatives of political parties to it. The representative of one such party disclosed in the seminar about a plan to produce 5,000 mw of power in the next five years by his party, if it forms the government after the election. This commitment, to make sense in operational terms, should be included prominently in their party manifesto before the elections.
Needless to say, other major parties ought to come up with similar pledges or better ones as well as the details of how they would be achieving the targets. There must be no further vacillation, oscillation or underperformance in the overall energy sector from sheer governmental neglect. The country has had to pay too high a price in all respects for neglect in producing adequate energy. This same sloth can be continued in the future only at the cost of postponing economic growth and deepening existing problems of production, consumption and vital related factors.
As it is, many industrial operators in the Dhaka and Chittagong regions are suffering very badly from not having proper supply of power and gas. Power in varying degrees is indispensable for running both manufacturing and service industries. And gas is the raw materials of many industries. But a severe shortage of both is bedeviling the entrepreneurs. They are hard pressed as it is to maintain their normal level of production. Many are underutilizing capacities and have retrenched a good number of their workers.
Worse is the case of new industries which have been set up in the Dhaka and Chittagong regions particularly. These industries could not go into production long after their establishment as they have not got power or gas connections to be able to operate them. But these enterprises have been accumulating losses and the same have become enormous in some cases. The owners of such industries are in deep worry about repaying the loans with a high rate of interest to the institutional lenders from where they borrowed large amounts of resources to set up the plants. The lending institutions are also sharing the worry as they extended large amounts of loans to such enterprises which failed to take-off and the loans have turned into defaulted ones in most cases.
Therefore, all governments in this country -- starting with the next elected one -- are expected to understand the bitter realities and go all out to improve energy supply. Incentives sought to be given through monetary and fiscal policies are bound to fall flat in the face of the crisis situation in respect of energy supply. Fiscal and monetary policies will be useful or work as additional inducements only when the energy supply improves for the better.
Government should address the issue of energy with the greatest seriousness or very focused intent and improve the energy supply over the short- and medium-terms. There should be convincing proofs in this connection that there would be no reverses in this tend and that energy supply would be only increasing substantially over the longer term. If this is done, then that would be considered as the greatest input towards motivating the entrepreneurs and accelerating investment operations leading to the aspired rate of economic growth.
Needless to say, other major parties ought to come up with similar pledges or better ones as well as the details of how they would be achieving the targets. There must be no further vacillation, oscillation or underperformance in the overall energy sector from sheer governmental neglect. The country has had to pay too high a price in all respects for neglect in producing adequate energy. This same sloth can be continued in the future only at the cost of postponing economic growth and deepening existing problems of production, consumption and vital related factors.
As it is, many industrial operators in the Dhaka and Chittagong regions are suffering very badly from not having proper supply of power and gas. Power in varying degrees is indispensable for running both manufacturing and service industries. And gas is the raw materials of many industries. But a severe shortage of both is bedeviling the entrepreneurs. They are hard pressed as it is to maintain their normal level of production. Many are underutilizing capacities and have retrenched a good number of their workers.
Worse is the case of new industries which have been set up in the Dhaka and Chittagong regions particularly. These industries could not go into production long after their establishment as they have not got power or gas connections to be able to operate them. But these enterprises have been accumulating losses and the same have become enormous in some cases. The owners of such industries are in deep worry about repaying the loans with a high rate of interest to the institutional lenders from where they borrowed large amounts of resources to set up the plants. The lending institutions are also sharing the worry as they extended large amounts of loans to such enterprises which failed to take-off and the loans have turned into defaulted ones in most cases.
Therefore, all governments in this country -- starting with the next elected one -- are expected to understand the bitter realities and go all out to improve energy supply. Incentives sought to be given through monetary and fiscal policies are bound to fall flat in the face of the crisis situation in respect of energy supply. Fiscal and monetary policies will be useful or work as additional inducements only when the energy supply improves for the better.
Government should address the issue of energy with the greatest seriousness or very focused intent and improve the energy supply over the short- and medium-terms. There should be convincing proofs in this connection that there would be no reverses in this tend and that energy supply would be only increasing substantially over the longer term. If this is done, then that would be considered as the greatest input towards motivating the entrepreneurs and accelerating investment operations leading to the aspired rate of economic growth.