Siddique Islam (National News Service) Dhaka, Wednesday, June 15: The Board of Investment (BoI) of Bangladesh sent an invitation letter Tuesday to the authorities of the Indian conglomerate, Tata Group, for initiating 'conclusive negotiations’ from July 2 next, New Age reported.
Quoting sources, the newspaper reported that the government would, in the meantime, finalise its terms and conditions for the final negotiations with Tata and strike a deal for the proposed $2.5 billion investment for setting up steel, power and fertiliser plants.
‘We will try to conclude the negotiations in the next round of talks instead of prolonging the process as assumed earlier,’ a key member of the government committee to oversee Tata’s investment proposal told New Age.
The next round of talks — the second one after the Tata Group formally submitted the investment proposal in April — was supposed to begin on June 19.
The date has now been deferred to July 2 because of the preoccupation with national budget of the finance secretary, Zakir Ahmed Khan, who heads the committee for negotiating with the Tata team of executives.
Before going for the upcoming critical negotiations, the government will have to finalise its positions on all important and contentious issues that will be tabled during the meeting.
A member of the national committee headed by the Industries Minister, Motiur Rahman Nizami, identified three issues as critical for the negotiations — fixation of the price of gas and guarantee of its uninterrupted supply for Tata plants, and the method of coal mining, if it is leased out.
Apart from demanding pricing at an ‘agreed rate’ Tata wants guarantee of interrupted gas supply for 30 years and the government is thinking of taking a moderate line in this connection. The government has given 15 years’ guarantee to French company Lafarge for its cement plant.
After concluding the negotiations, the government of Bangladesh and Tata will sign an agreement. (End/si)
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