Arakan News Agency
The Bangladesh government has formally invited its Myanmar counterpart to discuss issues on power and energy exchange between the two countries.
State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid last week sent an official letter to the Myanmar Electricity Power Minister U Khin Maung Soeat in this regard, concerned officials said.
In his letter, Nasrul Hamid expected the upcoming visit of the Myanmar delegation here would help identify future course of action on cooperation in power and energy sector between Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Bangladesh government has decided to look forward to extend its cooperation with the government of Myanmar in order to explore the opportunity of bridging the neighboring countries for implementing hydro-power and gas based power projects either on equity share basis or through import of power from Myanmar, he said. The state minister said Bangladesh has achieved sustainable economic growth rate, on and around six percent over the last few decades. As a result, the demand for electricity has been increasing at a rate of 10-12 percent per annul.
According to Power Sector Master Plan 2010, Bangladesh needs at least 24,000MW power by the year 2021 and 40,000MW by 2030.
We understand that Myanmar has huge hydropower potentials in the region and there are substantial scopes for joint initiative to explore these potentials for mutual benefits, he said. Bangladesh has a plan to set up mega power hub having electricity generation capacity of over 10000MW from coal-fired power plants at Moheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar which is adjoining to Myanmar. Myanmar’s present and future gas sector projects are at Rakhine coast which is near Cox’s Bazar. The Myanmar government has awarded blocks Ad-1, AD-6 and AD-8 to international oil companies.
Source :daily-sun
