Bangladesh sends China $6.4bn infrastructure wishlist

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Bangladesh features asked the Chinese government for $6.4bn for nine infrastructure projects, including an ambitious interface task and the country’s longest bridge, Dhaka’s Financial Express reports.

The Economic Relations Division, which made the request in a letter to the Chinese government, is hoping to elicit $1.6bn to expand Payra seaport and $1.2bn for a good 10km-prolonged bridge between the location of Barisal and the suburb of Bhola, across two rivers in the Ganges delta.

The Payra project, the first phase which was completed in 2016, is eventually likely to cost up to $15bn.

Up to now, the China Harbour Engineering Enterprise and China Condition Engineering and Structure Corp have already been awarded contracts worth $600m, and the Jan De Nul Group, headquartered in Luxembourg, has secured a 10-year deal for the dredging work.

The port will demand at least $1bn in dredging work to make a navigable channel to the Bay of Bengal, involving the shifting of 100 million cubic metres of materials.

Other projects in the grocery list include $850m for a project to manage the Teesta river, $800m to improve electricity transmission and distribution, a technology park, an upgrade of Barisal-Kuakata highway to several lanes and the construction of sewerage on Dhaka.

China overtook India while Bangladesh’s most significant trade partner in 2015, and has since become an important investor found in its infrastructure. Altogether, China features funded, or will fund, projects well worth $38bn in the united states, $24bn of which were agreed throughout a go to by President Xi Jinping in 2016.

Previous June, Sheikh Hasina, the primary minister of Bangladesh, signed an arrangement to determine an Investment Cooperation Functioning Group with China, which held its first conference in Dhaka this season. The request for cash was made through this channel.

The proposal was built despite a Chinese suggestion that Bangladesh not bring forward new projects until those under way have been completed. Dhaka says its proposed schemes replace four tasks worth $3.2bn that have received financing from other sources, such as the Dhaka-Sylhet motorway, which is being payed for by the Asian Production Bank.

In recent years China and India have used investment in Bangladeshi infrastructure as a way of gaining influence in the country, and Dhaka has made its request throughout a amount of sharply increased tension between its two benefactors.
Source: https://www.globalconstructionreview.com

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