Ministry seeks $1.0b sovereign guarantee

FE Team | Published: September 29, 2018 22:16:25

FE report
Industries ministry has sought $1.0 billion sovereign guarantee to facilitate a loan deal for the proposed Ghorashal-Palash Urea Fertiliser Plant project.
To this end, officials said, a proposal has recently been sent to finance ministry in favour of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC).
The fertiliser plant will be built by bidders' funds.
Earlier, Economic relations division proposed the World Bank (WB) and Japan government to finance the project.
The WB declined to fund the project and Japan did not reply, an industries ministry source said. Later, an expression of interest (EoI) was sought through an international tender.
Some 11 bidders showed their interest. Later, an evaluation committee made a shortlist of four.
In January 2017, tender documents were sent to the bidders who sent their proposals to the BCIC in August.
The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase approved the proposal of M/S MHI, Japan and CC7, a Chinese consortium, involving $1.02 billion based on the evaluation committee's report.
Currently, Bangladesh has no specific bidder-financing policy.
For this, sovereign guarantee would be needed against any loan agreement with foreign lenders, a source said.
Industries ministry's proposal of sovereign guarantee for a foreign loan agreement has been received, a finance ministry official told the FE.
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