The shareholders of the company present at the EGM approved the incorporation of the new qualifying object clause in the Memorandum of Association subject to the permission of the High Court Division of the Supreme Court on petition under Section 13 of the Companies Act 1994.

Presided over by Director Syed Fazlul Haque FCA, the meeting was attended by Tauhidul Islam, Managing Director; Md. Latif Khan, Director; Ayesha Aziz Khan, Director; Tapan Krishna Podder FCA FAMA, Director; Helal Uddin Ahmed, Director; Mahmud Hasan FCMA, Financial Controller and Company Secretary and other senior officials of the company.

5 Bidding for Sirajganj Power Project

Five international power companies have submitted their qualification documents with the Power Cell of the Power Division to participate in the bidding for setting up the 450 megawatt Sirajganj Power Project.

Previously the government had floated three rounds of tenders for the same project. One of the tenders was cancelled at its final stage without any reasonable explanation and the third one was cancelled earlier this year on ground of lack of transparency.
This time, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing technical support for the tender.

Sources said the five companies that submitted qualification documents are AES Corporation from USA, Korea Electric Power Corporation from South Korea, YTL from Malaysia, a consortium of Powertek Berhad from Malaysia and Siemens Project Ventures GMbH from Germany, and a consortium of Summit Industrial and Mercantile Corp from Bangladesh and GE Energy LLC from USA.

The Power Cell is expected to complete the pre-qualification process within 10 days and move to the next stage of the bidding, sources said adding that the tender is expected to be floated in the first quarter of next year.

These companies had also participated in the pre-qualification of the 450-MW Bibiyana Power Project in November. In addition, US oil giant Chevron, which is operating the Bibiyana gas field, has also participated in that bid.

Japan to Lend $324m for Haripur, 2 schemes

Japan will provide $ 324 million in loan assistance for New Haripur Power Plant and two other projects in the country. An agreement to this effect was signed between the governments of Japan and Bangladesh in the capital.

Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Masayuki Inoue and Secretary, Economic Relations Division, M Aminul Islam Bhuiyan signed the exchange of notes on behalf of their respective governments.

Following the signing of the notes, Chief Representative of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) in Dhaka Yasuo Fujita and ERD Additional Secretary M Mejbahuddin signed the loan agreements.

The government of Japan will provide the loan to the Bangladesh government through JBIC for implementation of the three projects. Of the total, $ 160 million will be provided for implementing the New Haripur Power Plant (360 MW) Development Project (Part I), $ 116 million for Dhaka-Chittagong Railway Development Project and $ 48 million for Small Scale Water Resources Development Project.

The interest rate is 0.01 percent per annum and the repayment period is 40 years inclusive of 10-year grace period for the three loans.

"The new loan package reflects Japan's strong intention to support Bangladesh to alleviate the recent serious power shortages by newly constructing a 360MW power plant near Dhaka," says a release from the Japanese embassy.

Power Division asks PDB to Reorganize Company Boards

The Power Division has advised the Power Development Board to go for sweeping reorganization of the boards of all power companies by changing the members and replacing the power secretary with secretaries of other ministries or experts as the chairmen to bring more transparency in the companies.
The division sent to the PDB a list of secretaries, power experts, BUET professors, and private-sector professionals like chartered accountants with whom to replace the existing board chairmen and directors of seven power agencies.

Kuwait Lends Bangladesh KD 4m to Finance Power Project

Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) signed an accord with Finance Ministry of Bangladesh according to which the fund would offer a new loan for financing the second phase of a major power project.

Deputy Direcor-General of KFAED, Ghanem Al-Ghunaiman, and the ERD Secretary signed the agreement.

The KD four million loan is repayable in 24 years with a grace period of four years and a two percent annual interest.

Kuwait, since 1975, has lent Bangladesh up to 127 million Kuwaiti dinars. The country has paid back up to KD 47.5 million.

Efficient Management in Power Sector Underscored

Capacity of any power plant could be increased up to 10 percent through efficient power generation and distribution, speakers told a workshop. Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) organized the workshop titled 'Total Quality Management of Power Sector of Bangladesh' in the city's Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.

The workshop aimed at helping Bangladesh Power Development Board in achieving quality assurance in power generation, distribution and efficient workload management.

Secretary for Power Dr Faozul Kabir Khan, Japanese Ambassador in Bangladesh Masayuki Inoue and Resident Representative of JICA Bangladesh Office Nobuko Suzuki Kayashima were present.

Japan International Cooperation Agency have been implementing Total Quality Management (TQM) project since 2006, the organizers said.

It also aims at decreasing unscheduled shutdowns, sufficient utilization of installed capacity, reduction of system loss and increase in sales/revenue, they added.

BPC wants $200-300m from BNP Paribas

The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation has sent a proposal to the government for taking a loan of $200-300 million from France’s BNP Paribas bank for importing fuel oils.

The BPC, in its proposal sent to the Energy Division, said that after the primary negotiation the French international bank had agreed to give the BPC a loan of $200-300 at the interest rate of LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Offered Rates) plus 1.83 per cent that will also include other charges.

Sources in the Energy Division said that the division had sought the Finance Ministry’s opinion on BPC’s proposal to borrow from BNP Paribas.

“If the Finance Ministry responds positively, a proposal to take the loan will be sent to the interim government’s Economic Affairs Committee for approval,” said an official source.

Five Cos Qualify to Submit Final Bid for Bibiyana Plant

Five firms have come out as pre-qualified bidders to stake a claim to the proposed 450-mw Bibiyana Power Plant project on completion of the evaluation of their pre-qualification (PQ) bids.

The five pre-qualified bidders are Korea Electric Power Corporation of South Korea, AES Corporation of the US, Chevron Corporation of the US, the consortium of Powertek Berhad of Malaysia and Siemens Project Ventures GmbH of Germany, and the consortium of Summit Industrial Mercantile Corporation Limited of Bangladesh and GE Energy LLC of the US.

Power Cell, the reform implementation wing of the Power Ministry, announced the PQ-assessment results, after scrutinizing the initial offers of a total of six PQ bidders.

Now, the five pre-qualified bidders will be asked to submit the financial and technical offers to the government for final bidding under the Request for Proposal (RfP) format, which is expected to take place in the first quarter of the next year.

Among the six aspirants, the Malaysia-based YTL Power International failed to qualify in the pre-qualification round of bidding, as its statement was found "non-compliant with the pre-qualification criteria", the Power Cell said in a release.

South Korea Inks Resource Development Deal

South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding with Bangladesh to expand cooperation in natural resource development and energy generation.

The Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said the cooperation is to be centered on exploration and development of coal and natural gas in the Southeast Asian country and the building of a 1,000-megawatt electrical power plant.

The ministry said Seoul called on Dhaka to support a bid by South Korean companies to win development rights to mine for bituminous coal in the Dighipara region. The consortium led by Korea Electric Power Corp. POSCO and Korea Resources Corp. has offered to build a thermal power plant in the region to help generate more electricity.

The mine, expected to produce up to 5 million tonnes of coal a year, would require investment of up to 400 billion won (US$437 million), with the power plant, consisting of two 500 megawatt-capacity generators, costing 1.3 trillion won.

South Korea has been pushing to win the right to develop overseas resources to cope with skyrocketing energy prices. It recently won deals for oil projects in Nigeria and nickel projects in Madagascar in exchange for building electric power plants.

Tk 70m Needed to Repair Damaged Power Installations in Sidr-hit Areas

Bangladesh's Power Division has sought 70 million taka (about 1 million U.S. dollars) from the Finance Ministry to repair damage on various power installations caused by cyclone Sidr in the southwestern part of the country.

"We have submitted the proposal this week seeking financial allocation to repair the damage in the worst-affected southern districts," said a senior Power Division officia.

He said of the total amount, most of the money will be spent on repairing the damage under the Rural Electrification Board (REB) areas.

Some 56 electric sub-stations and 25 transmission towers were damaged in the cyclone-hit areas across the country, REB Chairman Habib Ullah Majumder said.

Some 1,722 distribution poles were destroyed while 7,679 more were damaged during the cyclone.

Power Division sources said the powerful Sidr collapsed Bangladesh's entire power system resulting in failure of the country's national power grid.

Almost the entire country went without electricity as most of the power plants had tripped causing a complete blackout.

Summit Uttaranchol to set up 11mw Power Plant at Ullapara

Summit Uttaranchol Power Co Ltd -- a subsidiary company of Summit Power Ltd -- signed a contract with M/s GE Jenbacher GmbH and Co OHG, Austria for supply, delivery, erection supervision and commissioning of equipment.

According to a press release of the company, GE Energy Sales and Service Director Eugen Laner and Sales Leader Wolfgang Berger and Summit Power Ltd Chairman Muhammed Aziz Khan signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations.

It said the signing ceremony was held in London recently for purchase of 11-megawatt (MW) power plant to be set up at Ullapara in Sirajganj. The project will be implemented within one year.

Summit Power is implementing four power plants of which 33MW each in Narayanganj, Comilla and Gazipur and 11MW in Sirajganj, the press release said.

The power giant has also applied to bid for 450MW Bibiyana project in association with GE Energy, it added.

The GE is one of the largest companies in the world. This is for the first time the foreign-owned company has bid for projects in Bangladesh.
Summit is the first company to set up IPP in the country and until now the only local company in private sector electricity business.